Parents

I've started a drawing of my parents based on a photo that I don't remember.  It must be at the house of one of my uncles, one of my father's brothers.  Christmas tree at one side and my sister (I think) on the other.  Some event that I didn't attend.  I may end up doing more with background or colour -- or I may not.

Mask

We have one more class to finish our mask and present the extra sculpture.  I started to cover the mask in black and white images of weather disasters.  We're doing all this to a prescribed outline -- mask from recycled material, covered in plaster and then covered in images.  We had no choice.  Here's the latest phase.

Toby gets a haircut!

Toby went to the Buddy Luv Pet Spa yesterday.  He loved it.  They also do day care and I might need to leave him there one day so I'm glad he liked it so much.  He stayed for the grooming and had a chance to play with other dogs.  The cut is shorter than I intended but it'll grow!  He came home with a bandanna around his neck and silky caramel hair.  I'm going to take him once a month for a bath and trim -- and try to maintain the silkiness at home with daily brushing.

 

Masks

In life drawing class yesterday we drew the model wearing a succession of masks.  It was good timing for me and my mask from sculpture class.  For each pose the teacher altered the set-up and the lighting.  The idea of the day was to get out of our comfort zone where we draw in the same way each time.  It's true!  I know I draw in a certain scale so this time I went big and cropped on a few and also small on one.

I showed the first teacher my three drawings for the project he set up.  He didn't seem very enthusiastic but he was the same last year before giving me an A.  He had some good critique and suggestions for improving them.  Then our current teacher gave another assignment of 3-4 small drawings using the ideas from today -- shaking things up in terms of mood, tone, scale, mark making, media and etc.

Collage

Last week in life drawing we ended with three poses in three different sizes that we were to make into a collage.  The focus seemed to be on the composition of the complete image.  This is what I came up with.  Not really all that exciting.  The teacher that it works to create the illusion of depth which is good.  She thought the negative space could have been more or less busy than it is.

Mask

We did the next stage on our masks in class today -- we covered them in plaster bandages.  It's quite amazing to see the transformation.  The last stage will be to collage our images on top after applying a layer of matte medium.  As I've said, my theme is extreme weather events.  I'm considering at the moment using black and white photos only.  I'll reprint and otherwise manipulate the images I've collected.  For drawing class tomorrow we're to bring a mask.  I guess I have one to take even if it's not quite finished.

Orchid (Canine)

I've finished my extra sculpture for credit.  I started to picture an orchid so that's what I've made.  It was to have only three components -- found object, pole, plinth -- plus any materials to hold it together.  I used Toby's used bones called Dingoes, a stick I found on a walk and the cone from his surgery.  I also added his hospital band.  As I tried to photograph the sculpture this morning Toby wanted his bones back!

Toby

This is how Toby looks much of the time at home -- rolled up into a ball or flat out on one side.

Non-sequential drawing

I went to open drawing again last night and did my third non-sequential drawing.  This time it was a male model which seemed to make a difference.  Also I worked horizontally.  Here are the 3 drawings I've done for class credit.

Life Painting

We spent class time yesterday improving our paintings from last week.  Again we were to work toward accurate flesh hues.  It's not easy!  I never mixed the same colour twice!  Here's the comparison from week one to week two.

The illusion of depth

I've had two of my three classes so far this week.  In sculpture we built the base for the mask using recycled materials.  Next step will be to cover everything with newspaper and glue.  Finally we'll add images on our theme.  I've decided that my theme will be the extreme weather events of the recent past.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes ...

In life drawing we did multiple drawings on each page using techniques to make the illusion of depth.  Our last three drawings were done separately and each to a different scale.  Over the week we're to make them into one collaged image.