Shh! She is sleeping

A.

This wee wisp of a girl, much fattened and nimbler now since the moment pictured here, was born in the spring along with a hundred other babes who, through their birth and their mother's attachment to the internet, form the offspring of the April 2012 Birth Club. Little A's mum was my Secret Santa. Of course, though she seems chuffed by the gift, really the pleasure of putting this pastel painting together was mine.

Very miserably for me, though, I won't be continuing to use chalk pastels. I was obligated to buy them for art class and did so reluctantly, only to find them a hugely sympathetic medium. So natural to use, especially for an aspiring colourist. However, they let off a dust that is very fine and, whether the pigments are toxic or not, is difficult to filter and to clean. No one needs that in their lungs.

So now I am trying oil pastels! Stay tuned.

Left-handed insight

November 29, 2012

Only one art class left. Sad to leave the situation that has allowed me/taught me to make easily the best art I've ever done.

The blog is quiet lately because I feel quiet about art these days. Not sure why. I do a lot of it, but it feels a bit too in-my-head to talk about right now.

November 22, 2012

One thing I would like to share. Our teacher, Aida Alves, taught us to draw with our non-dominant hands. It's oddly freeing. The picture at the top of the page was drawn (base drawings) with my right hand. First layers of colour, also right hand. All the movement was done with my non-dominan, left hand. It's easier to hear what the piece needs that way. Flaky, but truth!

Lined up feet

November 20, 2012

Felled by flu last week -- and I missed the foot class! Yup, the foot. That limb of ill omen (well, for artists), and the major reason I signed up for anatomy art class. My feet are absolutely wretched. I fought back by doing lots of foot studies at home.

The poorly-photographed green person below is from the previous class devoted to the torso. My teacher told us we weren't allowed to use brown so I crept back into the land of colour. In the doing, I realised my Grumbacher pastels were absolute shite. Even my teacher said I needed a trip to the art store.

November 8, 2012

And we all know how that turned out. That's right. Expensively. $136 in one sweet hour of goggly-eyed lust.

Did you know you can buy marbling kits, tie-dye t-shirt kits, and face-painting kits? Yes, and you can pay for them, too! Along with washable, non-toxic finger paint, on-sale watercolour paper blocks, black pastel paper and a Faber Castell black marker (fine point) because I only had it in brown.

I'm a glutton, but at least I was spending on my little girl and not just myself.














I also bought the Prismacolour Nupastels I was supposed to get and MY WORD they are awesome. Like butter. Here's a pillow.

November 18, 2012

Personal best

Caroline, October 25 2012

Since I started Bus Drawing out of necessity, my attitude has been to draw what I see, anywhere, anytime, with whatever I've got on hand. My art class is changing all that.

I'm rediscovering traditional art supplies like charcoal, pastels, big sketchpads, easels and kneaded erasers. They are all so easy to use since they are designed for artists and perfected over centuries. I'm also exploring traditional colours: all the old favourites -- burnt sienna, raw umber -- and standard drawing techniques, like hatching, shadow blocking, and the like. My art class gives me things like time, teaching, and developmental exercises, too, for all of which I am fervently grateful.

Theo, November 1 2012

Mostly, it's just so easy to draw in this environment that I'm focusing on improving my work artistically (I'm not totally sure what I mean here, but hope the gist comes across!) instead of on contextual challenges (like sitting on a bus or drawing a moving target like my children) or technical challenges (drawing with markers in small books when I would prefer to do large format work with brushes, inks and paints).

At the same time, those 1.5 years on the bus were so difficult that my technical abilities grew enormously. I am constantly amazed in art class by how easy it is for me to do assignments that would have had me sweating pencils a couple of years ago. I'm not trying to say I'm the greatest or anything, just that I can't believe that a relatively short term of drawing on the bus did for all of my art, not just rapid portraits.

Art class is three hours of sheer joy every week. May there be more and more and more.

His right hand

November 2012

November 2012

Though my husband and I got together in 2005, I've rarely made a study of him though I've always wanted to. The larger portrait isn't quite right -- too Arnie -- but I did a good job on the drawing above. A devotee of the computer, Jeff writes software by day and at night he can be found writing ever more code, gaming or reading online. As someone with fingers in all sorts of pots, I admire his dedication.

Dinner sketching

October 2012

My latest trick for getting through Ada's lingering at the end of meals is to keep a sketchbook by my placemat. After a few days of this she has started making drawing requests. It really bugs her that I mostly draw heads. The funny thing is, she doesn't ask me to draw bodies. She always tells me to put feet on them! I like to interpret her literally just to tease her.

The shin bone's connected to the chin bone

Never seeing ribs the same way again

October 23, 2012

Here is my spiny goodness project with a little colour. No time in this busy mother-of-two life for shading and all that. The flat colours remind me of Goodnight Moon. ("Goodnight mush!")