So how much fun is taking a class?!?! Love it!
Totally overwhelmed (IN A GOOD WAY!) by Kal’s class at Inspired. Really have been giving a lot of thought to art since then and have been wanting some formal training.
After just having moved to the east coast from Colorado in the 7th grade (TOTALLY TRAUMATIC!), my art teacher told me (in about my second class here) that I was useless and should get out of art as quickly as possible. nice. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the personality then that I have now (otherwise y’all know what I would have told him to do with his opinion….). So, 7th grade art class was *IT* for me.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I was encouraged at home. Lots LOTS of arts and crafts. No formal training. No drawing or painting (other than Crayola-freestyle.) So how excited was I when my rockin’ library threw a “Pastel Workshop” at the Andres Institute?
Gregory Maichack came and taught a two hour class. I’m shocked at what I learned and was able to do in two hours. And what he was able to present. Scumbling. What a fun word. Blending. Hello pastel fingertip to elbow (oh how I wish I had a photo of that!)
Here he is with a drawing he did (I love dandelion puffs!) and used to demonstrate what fixative does to your work (you may be able to see a masked corner of a piece of paper on the stem of the fuller puff.) His drawings were amazing in person — my picture does not do it justice. He had great tips and techniques and was highly entertaining. I asked him if he was offering other classes/had a website with a class listing (in case anyone’s interested — me included…) He mentioned that his website was ABOUT to be updated with classes, so you may have to check back in… And give me a call if you’re going — we can carpool!
It seemed everyone in the class was hugely talented. Unfortunately I was so busy trying to work on my piece I didn’t get many pictures. Did manage to catch these two — loved both of their pieces. Super nice people too.
I really hate to post my work….I’m so new at this whole drawing-thing. Painting-thing. Anything but cutting-paper-up-with-my-paper-cutter-thing. (I love you Bertha!) So so much fun, but you can’t help but feel self conscious with something so new.
In retrospect….I’m thinking that portraits are HARD and maybe I should have gone with a flower piece of grass or something a little simpler for my foray into drawing. Anyone who has ever taken a class with me knows how well I start off simple. So, it’s not my thing. I like to make my life as difficult as possible. Life, in general, is WAY more FUN as a challenge!
My scanner didn’t fit half the picture…let’s pretend it didn’t fit the BETTER half. HA!
I know his face is not the correct shape. It looked right sketched out, but then when I started to fill it in, I realized…WHOOPS. I put down too much color to fix it — lessons 1, and 2. What you (I?) see in your sketch is probably not what the finished product looks like and GO EASY. (Another one of my strong suits.)
I botched his lips and it’s REALLY hard to fix RED with white (or light.) Lesson 3. Love red. I’ll have to get over the not being easy to fix thing. Plus, if I learned lesson 2 the first time, his face wouldn’t have been correct, but his lips could have. Probably one of those “Three times a charm” things. Speaking of red…it was a really hot day. His cheeks actually WERE that red.
Don’t you just love that we’re to the time of year where it is warm enough to make rosy cheeks?!?!
I SHOULD finish this drawing. There’s MUCH still to do. It was time to pack up and leave — just how the drawing was. I think the forced stop was good. I just kept working on something that I wasn’t happy with in the first ten minutes. I think I would like to start over with something that I will like the finished product better. I learned so so much in this class and am anxious to do some more with Pastels.
But for now, I’m off to bed early. Tomorrow is an information night for Andy’s new life at Annapolis — I’m all excited, but nervous and sad that he’s leaving so soon. Must get a good night’s rest so I’m not a human hosepipe tomorrow. Sweet dreams.
