Well. We went to the class that Nick’s art teacher is doing over at Binders. It’s an oil painting class, but he wanted to start us off with some charcoal exercises just to get the concepts established. I was not happy about this at first.
As it turns out, I kinda get it. Who knew? The piece I worked on actually looks like what I was looking at! The charcoal is to learn the concepts of light and shadow and it really works. That part was cool. But. You knew there’d be a but, didn’t you? But, the class overall was stodgy and not very interesting. Granted, we are coming in at the halfway point, so the others are working studiously on their still life paintings, but I found the class too slow and it felt as though the teacher was having a hard time changing gears between the n00bs and the more advanced students.
The truly funny thing is that now I think I’d get more from a drawing class than a painting class! And I’m the one who was grousing about being forced to draw rather than paint! LOL The thing about this charcoal technique is that there is no drawing. It’s all manipulation of light and dark. And I’m pretty good at it. So now I want more of that. I also think that gesture drills and other fast sketch drills would be fun to do.
The thing for me is that I need to be engaged in classes I take. I need to be challenged. I need to leave the class feeling like I’ll never get it. This class is none of that. It was more like, ok, I’ve done what you asked! Now what? I ended up waiting for further instructions and was quite bored. The subject matter doesn’t help either. Sorry, but if I had to look at that vase for 6 weeks I’d drop the class.
So, we’ll see how the other 2 classes go. I’m going to ask the teacher if he’d mind sticking to the charcoal for the other 2 classes. I really don’t want to spend $100 on oil paints and stuff for a couple of classes – or at all if I don’t like the pace of the class. Hopefully he’ll be ok with doing several charcoal pieces and working on light/shadow. Never hurts to ask, right?
Today I think I’ll get out of the house and run some errands. Perhaps get a cuban sammy from Havana over on Buford Hwy. Kool Korners on 14th is the best, but I don’t want to drive all the way over there with the construction. Maybe do some leche vitreaux (window shopping) over at Loehmanns… Replenish vitamins at Toco Hill… Buy booze at Toco Giant…Booze that I should stop drinking to lose weight but won’t cuz I’m a lush…
Anyway, I need to get OUT. It’s spring and I need to get my fat ass more active. Speaking of spring, the time changes this weekend. That’s right, we lose an hour – my cats will be jubilant! Yay, we get to eat earlier!!
Also: I’ve decided that I’d like to go to the Sia show at Variety Playhouse on Monday. Sia has worked with Sector 9, Zero 7 and various acid jazz bands in Australia and the UK. I know her mostly from her solo works, particularly Colour the Small One and Healing is Difficult. I’ll run over to the Variety and pick up the tix tomorrow when I go get Kate’s check from Adaptation. :-)
Everyone have a great day!