:: Day 8 - 120 Days of Making a Drawing ::

Nana Joy

The holidays...aaahhh! Day one - and as Jo over at Indigo Inspirations quite rightly says: "time to breathe out!".  Just a little more space is so welcome in these hectic times.  And when I have a little more space I can get all absorbed in something like this.  This drawing of my Nana Joy - who is almost 95, by the way - I have been wanting to use as a practise piece for my portrait-drawing for a while.  I took the photo last October on the evening of her 94th birthday and I think it is the nicest photo (if I do say so myself!!) of my Nana, who usually has to be sneaked up on to get any photo of her - she doesn't much like having photos taken.  She looked radiant at dinner that night.
I spent over 3 hours today on this drawing...so easy to become engaged in a subject like Nana.  There is so much interesting detail to discover on such a wise face - and much compassion to learn as well - the person being drawn is almost under a microscope - so all their little vulnerabilities are there for inspection and interpretation.  I had a most intriguing experience drawing today - thank you Nana Joy!

:: 120 days of making a drawing Day 7 ::

...hmmmm...we had a big day today...it began with a breakfast out at House of Gabriel, on the Tweed River, at Tumbulgum (I just love the sound of that little town - sounds like it ought to be in a fairy story...about mischievious gnomes, or gum-nut babies...?). Very entertaining breakfast - as all and sundry of the surrounding male gender were all out on show on the river in and on their various 'toys' - parading it up and down, using their very clean and flash automotive toys to deliver and receive back again said aquatic toys...very entertaining...all boys...and their toys...no - I'm not jealous! At all.
We'd thought we were achieving clever geographic-planning by choosing this little gem of a cafe for our special breakfast out, as we were then heading to the Tweed River Aquatic Centre for a fun birthday party involving waterslides!
Alas, technology let the day down and our festivities were relocated to...Ballina...only about 80km's SOUTH of where we'd so...cleverly (as we'd thought!) placed ourselves...with plenty of time to reach our party...we thought!
We hoofed it back down the highway and...would you believe...driving at the speed limit or less...were the first to arrive for the relocated party.

Big day on the water slides, which ended very dramatically as Ballina was literally bombed by a seriously heavy hailstorm which arrived after about an hour's ominous thunder and lightening grumbling foreplay...truly looked like it had snowed in Ballina this afternoon.
So today's drawing comes in the form of a fantasy sketch/doodle done in the car... : )

:: 120 days of making a drawing Day 6 ::

feet

there are so many body-bits I'd like to practise...so...why not feet today? I found a pretty basic reference  book: The Human Figure A Photographic Reference by Erik A. Ruby at the Brunswick Heads Old + Gold Festival this year for the bargain price of $1! Basic and very seventies...but still has just what I need for my kind of drawing practise at the moment.

:: 120 Days of Making a Drawing Day 5 ::

we have an old Kombi back bench-seat - salvaged from a van being converted into a travelling abode - residing on our back deck, facing West...perfect for slumping into, to watch the last rays washing everything golden, so all appears magical...and perfect!

And from that very comfortable spot I sat late yesterday afternoon, with drawing book and chalk and wondered what the heck I would draw...at the end of another very full and wonderfully-inspiring day at school...my eyes first focused on the cactus - so that was it - couldn't even think enough to make a choice further afield...so, the cactus on the ledge it was!!

Lady with an Ermine (left)

 And this is the inspiring stuff we co-created at school yesterday!  We were each asked to choose 13 tiny (4cm x 3cm) rectangles randomly from a paper bag, each of which were one of 90 rectangles, which together were a da Vinci masterpiece...although we did not know what we were creating - we were not allowed to see the print of the painting!
We then received 13 pieces of painting card - each 20cm high x 15cm wide and set about painting each piece as best we could represent what we saw.  We used acrylic paint and each mixed all the colours we 'saw'. The group worked feverishly to complete this within the day - seven of us, including the tutor, Michelle Dawson, since we were a small group on Friday. Once the pieces began to be placed onto the grid, it suddenly became thrilling to watch our image materialise...very exciting!!

The course we are taking is run in two groups - a Mon/Tues group and our group is the Thurs/Fri group.  The Mon/Tues group created the painting on the right and ours is the beauty on the left...Lady with an Ermine...and on the wall she hangs proudly at 2 metres tall by 1.35 metres wide!

What do you think about that?







 

:: 120 Days of Making a Drawing Day 4 ::

Here she is...day four...not much to say really, other than - I fitted it into a busy day and pleased I did - maybe suffice to say I was well-supported by husband to make the effort and get it done!  Looking forward to the weekend and days with a little more breathing space in them.

:: 120 days of making a drawing DAY 3 ::

I appear to be on a roll.  So I will just go with it.  As I chattered my way to sleep late last night after tumbling into bed closer to eleven than ten, I vaguely remember annoying poor husband with some notion that there was a life-drawing class on every Wednesday morning right here in Mullumbimby, just a long the road.  And I think I remember Aaron asking me "was I going to go?" and then thinking that I didn't really have a good reason to not go....
...so I went. To the Dynamic Drawing class at the Drill Hall in Mullum with Ron Curran.
LOVED it!  Apparently we had just a small class today, which meant extra help when required.  I managed 26 drawings in the 2 + hours of drawing...lots of 1-2 minute poses to get us loosened up and then into some longer ones.
Again, a most refreshing experience and one I'll definitely repeat.  By the end I was beginning to feel really confident to just make marks on the paper.  I found myself less in the rush which I've associated with life-drawing for myself in the past and more relaxed in my approach.  Also, to see what everyone else had produced in the session was enlightening and inspiring!
...here's a couple I feel brave enough to expose...how funny is that - who do you reckon was really the more exposed???

:: 120 days of making a drawing DAY 2 ::

It was quite simply the largest near-naked derriere I have ever seen and it was perched high above a pair of sky-scrapingly-high, glittering, platform court shoes, holding up not only the bottom, but the very substantial limbs, also.  Very refreshing - so large and so very feminine and so very out there.  I came away feeling humbled by the boldness and the courage of the soul in that luscious female body. And realised how narrow, indeed, our common media-driven concept of the parameters within which we females generally are supposed to fit, is. And...corsets do WONDERFUL things to form...

Right - well - back to the drawing...the lights were dim-ish, I scuttled in, alone, hurried to a corner seat, where I hoped no-one else would be able to overlook my shoulder and settled in...not knowing what to expect.   And...it was outrageous...ly good fun!!  I have not enjoyed myself so much in a very long time...and I got in my drawing practise for day TWO of my challenge as well...so here are just a couple of pieces of evidence of my foray into dr.Sketchy's burlesque life-drawing...

...bring on day three...I'm off to Dynamic Drawing for my third day of the challenge...

:: the 120 Day Do What You Love Challenge ::

ok, so I was feeling like I needed a little something extra to motivate my own artistic practise generally, of a day, type of thing...  Sure - I attend the visual arts course and attend to the homework, etc and I also want to be able to just draw everyday as an independent thing I love doing...
...and then I heard about the "120-day do what you love" challenge on the lighthouse lounge on Bay-FM yesterday morning and I thought: "that's it! Make a drawing everyday."  And, so I have begun...
...and it is brave to make the posting here, showing you what I'm doing...and I think it's important for me, too, as it will be another little check-point along my path to motivation.

Here she is, number 1.  Guess who, at nearly one?  Now, there is PLENTY I can see that needs improvement just from the distance of a day, etc - it's a start, though! YES!!!
And, number two will be something from tonight's attendance at Dr Sketchy in Byron...nervous... wish me luck!!