anatomy

the third assignment from the first (yes, the FIRST) day of class (she gave us like 8 that day, ok?! ;) it was way harder than i expected. i think mostly the ribcage, because a) i was drawing from a preserved skeleton, but the cartilage had all turned black, so it was hard to interpret where the ribs were, and b) the background was black (mine was white, you may have noticed ;) and there were almost ZERO shadows on this guy (in my human anatomy book from freshman year in college), so i kind of felt like i was making it up. that was a way longer apology explanation than this 10-minute drawing deserved.

looking at the anatomy book, though, inspired me to think about incorporating more anatomical drawings into my work. this has been something i've considered before, since i'm a nurse, and so have a little bit of an inside look to the human body.

also, i LOVE the opening credits on the show, House - have you seen them? anatomical drawings, text, MRI's, textures...LOVE. side note: i also love all the drawing in the sherlock holmes movies (especially the credits ... i just start smiling when they come on :).

this week...

 don't worry - i've still been making art and being creative this week... just haven't also had time to post about it (i've had a cold, and joey hasn't been napping much, so i'm pretty exhausted, among other things ;)... so here was basically my week (i've taken sundays off thus far):

Monday: finished painting this lady... i'm still not happy with it, but it's way better than it was! she went through phases of being pasty-white-sickly-looking, little-miss-sunburned-pinky, and fake-tan-orange girl before finally ending up like this :)

as i went through the stages of making her, my two-year-old kept eyeing my progress with his usual running commentary: "mommy, is that your playdough? what you making?" and then, "you made a person, mommy? i like it. :)" and the best "what's she doing, mommy? praying?" yep, buddy, that's exactly what she's doing: praying.

 tuesday: ok, this was the craft at MOPS, but i'm counting it as being creative... i did come home and paint the frame white ;) it's dry-erase - cute, right?

wednesday: pencil drawing of an animal (leopard? ocelot? cheetah? my son assures me it's a cheetah) my husband photographed on our trip to israel a few years ago... i chose it because i identified with the pose ;)

 thursday: got out and made some "art in nature". i had picked all these hollowed-out, almost petrified pomegranates off my sister's tree last weekend before i even saw the assignment this week, and i was like "perfect! i actually have a use for them, besides just enjoying them myself!" :) took joey to run around at the park while i arranged and rearranged dried pomegranates ("you touching the ew, mommy?"). it was great. now i want to draw some of these combinations :D

 friday: a journal page assignment. wrote a bunch of stuff down and then painted over it :) it was supposed to be about the "season" we're in (eg, winter)... since we don't exactly have distinguishable seasons around here, i thought about what DOES happen only at certain times of year... the migration of the monarch butterflies ends with them wintering in southern california - perfect! in pismo beach, near where i grew up, there's this grove of eucalyptus trees by the beach that is currently (probably - i'm not there right now to check) covered in these orange beauties!

and today, saturday... we shall see!

day 5 of the class: journaling. i think this is basically "putting it all together".
for this assignment, we journaled about what we've learned so far, and then drew, colored, and painted over it. this was the first portrait i've done without using a person or photo for reference. just made it up {intuitive, they call it}. i thought it was done when i took this first photo, but then it seemed garishly bright when i looked at it on the computer screen. so i added some white, and it turned into the piece below. i think this one looks more like me (or, at least, like a person in general), but i miss the colors of the first draft, especially in the neck area... all part of the process...!

sculpted

 i've never sculpted before yesterday (besides the occasional playdough veggietales character for my son ;)... watched a couple of videos from my class, and it looked super-easy... 

yeah, not so much... especially faces. 

i do love this simple little worshiper-woman...

 especially the little crown of rosetted bedecking her crown...

 but this is what she looks like today - somehow her lips disappeared, and her entire bottom half is cracked. guess i have some things to learn ;) i was hoping she'd dry by today so i could paint her... but i guess i'll be filling in cracks and letting those dry first! and making some lips?

expressive

this was a very quickly done "expressive" portrait (meaning it's not meant to be representational - not meant to look exactly like the subject in real life - it's supposed to express an emotion by the use of different marks and colors...) - i love it :) 

i started with a ten-minute sketch (with shading) using vine charcoal, and then i added color using water-soluble artist crayons. instead of wetting them with water afterwards, i just went straight over it with a layer of creamy white paint. i'll definitely be trying this set of techniques again! :)

what emotion do you see? just curious :)

and today i drew him ;)

this class i'm taking is awesome. and insane ;) at least if you were actually expecting to complete it in the allotted 5 weeks - but she leaves it all up for a year, so there's not a huge time crunch! good thing, since the first DAY had like 8 assignments and this is the second one (draw someone you feel deeply connected to - my two-year-old, joey!)! and, yes, this is all instagram-filtered up ;)

today i drew me...

 it was during joey's nap, and my only two mirrors in the house are in wake-him-up-if-you-walk-by-on-the-squeaky-hardwood-floor territory. so i grabbed a vintage handheld mirror that was decorating my desk, and drew what i could see! :) not so sure about the yellow oil pastels... i've never really worked with them before, and am not really sure how to move them successfully... so three self-portraits in 24 hours, and my nose still looks deformed, and it doesn't quite look like me (although, this is the most attractive one of the three, so you can think i look like this if you want ;) but i am so inspired to keep drawing and practicing! the self-portrait was only ONE of the assignments for the first day, so i'll definitely be continuing to work in drawing in the days & weeks to come! :)
however, mondays are for drawing. tuesdays are writing! so i'm about to start the lesson for today (i have been looking forward to this all day! :) and do a little creative writing, sipping vanilla rooibos tea at starbucks :)