DRAWING CLASS #7

I thought I had a plan - man, am I a good one for plans! Give me a schedule, give me a rule and I'll follow it to a 'T'! I started out about 1 to pick up my glasses (YEA!!!) and then grab some laundry soap (at the CVS drugstore - weird) drop them off at home and head out, making my way to 8th St. and my Drawing Class by 6:30. I ended up hanging out across the street from the new Ralph Lauren flagship store talking to Erica on the phone. I have determined this is my favorite building in this city and think this man has more taste than even Armani - yep, just decided that. Here are just a couple of the hundreds of photos I have taken of this place.

Then I stopped at the Gap because I have a coupon for 45% off one item on this particular day and I can't pass that up. Again, I'm sitting on an employee step ladder talking to Erica. We are having a great time preparing for her coming here in just another day. We are both a little nervous about her Metro trip from JFK airport to my apartment. It should take an hour and 4 minutes (according to Google Maps) and there are a few train changes and dang, if there might just be a few wrong turns but HANG IN THERE ERICA - just keep walking. Honest, you DO eventually, get there. She gets in at 5:20 in the morning so hopefully, it will not be dark when she sets out on her adventure!

I ended up back at my apartment a little tired from the last couple days of walking for miles and miles - though it is SO SO great. The day before I ended up in Chelsea - way south and on the west side of Manhattan and discovered an area of fun, outside flea markets, old factories gutted and turned into little shops and some fabulous bakeries and tile shops. Instead of heading out today, I took a break and sat at my computer for a while until it was time for class and little dinner before - a piece of pizza from my favorite spot just outside the subway station on the way to school. $1 gets you a hot, fresh piece of cheese pizza and it's the BEST!

The first 45 minutes of Drawing Class is spent on 2 minute poses where you draw fast with an old fashion ink pen and bottle of ink. Then the next 45 minutes is spent looking at the teacher's pile of drawing books while he goes over the drawings one by one sharing some great insights. My apartment is getting filled with incredible art books because of this guy! Then the model strikes one pose for the rest of class and we got about half an hour to draw and make things really dark because Lee Tribe (the teacher) wanted to demonstrate how to 'remove' ink and pen from your drawing. I really liked my drawing but realized it wasn't black enough so I went to town with the paint brush and India ink and pretty much ruined it. Oh well - it's an exercise!
We took a 20 minute break then came back and he showed us how to remove these marks. He is so funny. He is SO messy - he's got water all over his work area, his hands are all black, his drawing is a disaster - it's like a little kid with finger paints! When he erases, he just does it randomly - huge areas. I need to go back to his website to see what the end results look like. So, I went to town on my drawing, removing stuff and putting stuff back in. The model was squirmy, which doesn't help - man, it's important that these guys hold still and stick with the pose! I'm sure they're college students picking up some extra money and they don't realize how hard the job is... She kept moving her legs, so those are weak but I feel like I conveyed some 'volume'. Only TWO more classes to go.