Originally posted 22 August 2009.

Since our final class was canceled, I opted for showing up this morning during my teacher’s painting class. I was the only one from Basic Drawing to show, so I felt a little out of place, but it was fun all the same. For our grand finale he let me choose my three-piece composition and materials. I went for a bottle, a vase, and a teapot, using chalk pastels on newsprint with an arbitrary color scheme. The colors I chose are such that no sane person would ever purchase in ceramic, but it was fun to use so many hues.

Since it was such a complex scene and my first time doing glass in color, it took me about three hours to complete. But I think I’m happy with it. It’s not my favorite (the lilies still win, and in fact are now framed), but it was a satisfying end to the course. I learned a lot in this class. I’d done a little noodling with pastels but I’d never even given any thought to charcoal or chalk. I had a great teacher and really enjoyed myself. The only thing I would have liked would have been to do more actual pen and pencil sketching. Perhaps next time.

chalk pastel on newsprint

And that’s it. I’ll take another class at some point. In the meantime, I’m thinking about getting some sort of tarp so I can use things like chalk and charcoal and pastels in my study without worrying too much about the white carpet.

Not that I have any clue what to do with my drawings. Most of them aren’t frame-worthy but I can’t bring myself to just toss them. So they’ll probably end up sitting in my closet. That’s okay. It was fun all the same.

Note: this is part of the Basic Drawing Series.

Originally posted 19 August 2009.

We started the evening with a bugger of a pot in charcoal on newsprint. Just a single pot, not a grouping, but even so it was interesting to compare to our drawings from the beginning of the class. With all the weird angles on this thing, I probably would have been crying had he introduced it weeks ago. I guess I have progressed somewhat.

charcoal on newsprint

After that we (finally) used our pens a bit. We still haven’t used all those pencils we had to buy (4B, HB, et al), but at least we did have this one last hurrah with our Sharpies. We covered cross-hatching and stippling. The subject matter (boxes) was boring, but the technique was kind of fun. They involve pretty much what they sound like: cross-hatching is shading using overlapping lines, and stippling is shading with varying density of dots (similar to pointillism but in monochrome). My stippling kind of sucks – I was in too much of a hurry, creating more dashes than dots – but it turned out all right in the end.

ink pen on paper

He closed out the evening by giving us some suggestions for drawing experiments, such as sketching animals at the zoo or making clay models and then drawing them. He also assured me that the “old boys” (which is how he refers to various famous painters) drew from photographs, so I should never feel bad about it. :)

ink pen on paper

This was, for all extents and purposes, our last class. Our teacher has a conflict next week: he also teaches at NOVA, and for whatever reason the two overlap by a week this term. He did, however, give us three other options:

1. Attend the Tuesday morning class. This would be an actual class, but it would mean taking leave from work.
2. Attend the Saturday morning painting class. The teacher would be there and I wouldn’t have to use any time off, but it wouldn’t be a real class. Also, it would be pretty packed, meaning less personal interaction.
3. Join him at the Hirshhorn Museum on Sunday afternoon. It’d be fun (and it’s my favorite Smithsonian), but I doubt much drawing would be involved.

I can attend any or all of them. I haven’t decided what I’ll do just yet. In the meantime, I think I’ll go ahead and scan/photograph all my drawings.

Note: this is part of the Basic Drawing Series.