Learning to Paint

Sometimes I take side excursions into the world of art, not just crafting. Not that crafting is just crafting - obviously I have a lot of respect for it, when my tongue isn't in my cheek. (Like art, there is good crafting and bad crafting, and which is which can depend on something as trivial as blood sugar levels. Let's just say that short of something being unqualifiedly bad - such as a sweater out of gauge with one sleeve a foot longer than the other - you know, what non-knitters notoriously think homemade knits are like - it's really just a matter of preference.) But my craftiness stems from my artsiness, rather than vice versa, so on occasion, seemingly out of the blue, I will do a post like this about, say, oil painting. I haven't really finished any of them, except this one. (However, I did just recover my old self portrait, which I thought I had lost. Now I can ponder finishing it.)

I took an oil figure painting class during the Fall at Fleisher, but I only managed to complete one of the two paintings we did there. A live model was present, and I took pictures of my painting at each break to track my progress. Taking photos gives me a perspective on what I'm doing. Sometimes I get ideas from them, and other times (most of the time) it allows me to see where the painting is not quite right. Such as with the eye on the left side of the drawing below.

I like the shadow

The instructor wanted us to heavily pencil in our portrait before painting. We spent the entire first class just drawing. I managed to break my pencil, which just goes to show that maybe I should lay off the caffeine.

Muddy!

I should have stopped at the final break instead of forging ahead, because when I was done it was like a gob of graphite.

The left eye is still a problem

Then we worked on the background. I got the background done rather quickly so I moved onto flesh tones. Which I totally didn't know how to blend. I'm largely self-taught, so I've managed to get this far with art without understanding a lot of basics that are covered in remedial art classes.

The model really did have hair this color. And the left eye continued to be a problem, but I finally got it tamed somewhat in the final class.

Bad photo, I know.

The final painting. I was pretty happy with it, even though I took slipshod photos of it. I have it hanging on my wall, where I swear it looks better than this.

The left eye was still a bit of a problem

Hopefully the above detail shows the painting to better effect. It's not the Mona Lisa, but I don't think it has one sleeve a foot too long, either.

Out and about

I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art today to meet up with a friend and see the Vermeer they have on display there. I am a big fan of Vermeer and his peers. Some advice: if you are going to see a famous artist's painting that is just on loan to your local museum, go on a Tuesday, just about when everyone is having brunch. Because the scene will be like this: 

When did these fountains last run? I always ask myself.

What is not featured in these photos of the front steps is the pair of tourists taking turns snapping pictures of each other running up the steps and doing the Rocky pose. It just so happened that they were done just a moment before I had my camera out. What a pity. (Can you feel the sarcasm dripping?) Visiting the PMA is an interesting and sometimes stomach-churning meeting of worlds. I think Rocky was a fine movie (I will not speak to its sequels) but these kind of pop-culture displays leave me lactose intolerant - I simply can't take the cheese. Add to that a woman who thought the pediment by C. Paul Jennewein was Jesus and the Canaanites, and I was really ready for some art.

Because obviously, I am an art snob. In a fuzzy hat.

Witness all the open space.

I can't resist a curtain wall reflection, even if I am rushing to catch a trolley:

 

 

Also while rushing to catch the trolley:

Pretty leaves!

In other news 

I've been commissioned to knit up some hats for the holidays by a friend who spins and knits and sews and, well, doesn't have a doppelganger to help her to do all of those things simultaneously in time for Christmas. I am the stand-in for her doppelganger. So far, I have knit 1 7/8 earflap hats out of her handspun and hand dyed yarn. (7/8 because all it lacks is edging and ties.) They need blocking, but here is the one I consider done.

 

My expression is serious to belie the fact that I am not wearing any pants.

I think it has a nice mossy look to it.

 

Painting a tree + kid

While the kid was at preschool today I started an oil painting of a photograph I took of her and a tree in the neighborhood park. I took the photo with the intention of painting it - I was fascinated by the colors and texture of the bark - and of course, V. got in several of the shots. When I reviewed them later, i found that I really liked the composition of one of them. So my tree painting became a tree and kid painting, after all. I paint in sessions - spurts, I guess. It's difficult to do it when the kid is home, so when she is a preschool I paint. Today was Session 1, and hopefully soon, there will be a Session 2.

Raw beginning of Session 1

I like to take photographs of the paintings I do as I go as a way to gain perspective. It looks different in a photograph on the computer screen. This is sometimes good, sometimes bad. It helps me find the adjustments I need to make and also, alas, to know when to stop for the day because it's getting worse, not better.

A little progress

I should have stopped here for the day.

But I went on.

I hung it on my wall where I think V. won't touch it, but where I will see it so that I don't just back burner it and never finish it. I'm already itching to work on it some more, but the kid is home now (and literally on my back as I type this!) so I will have to wait until she is asleep... and hopefully I have the energy to not simply join her in slumberland.

Neighborhood Murals

Philly is a city big on murals.Personally, I think this is because there are so many row houses that have been demolished, leaving blank sides, like amputated limbs. They get stuccoed over and often a mural gets put up on it. Some are good, some are bad, some are high  end and others are more DIY.

This is a pair that I pass every day on Baltimore Ave. The people in them are real people who live in the neighborhood. They face each other across a parking lot where a house used to be. (Click on the images to enlarge if you would like a closer look.)

About the mural

East mural

West mural

I was carrying V. when I took these photos this morning. I still feel like napping half the day away, I'm so exhausted, and instead of getting up at 6:30 AM like I am accustomed to, I am up about 10 AM. I get to bed really late. But as far as endurance toddler carrying, I am getting stronger. It takes about four blocks now for me to start feeling put upon - which means I can walk V. about four blocks, stop for coffee (or the playground) and then usually carry her back. I'm not sure if her endurance is building, but she certainly is learning to hold on better for a piggy back ride.

Cups and mugs

I made several mugs and cups beyond the sake cup from yesterday, but I only kept a few. I gave most of them away.

The mug you see here was an early attempt; it's very heavy, both in weight and in glaze.

This tea cup is purposefully handle free, and had its rim dipped in a glaze called "waterfall". I rather like the effect. I use this mug almost daily. It was a precursor to the porcelain, done in Danish Plain. I made another one that looks much like it in porcelain that I gave away.

The inside of the tea cup.

Top of my best "form". The glaze on this mug was an utter failure. But as my last thrown mug, it's shape was far better than the others. It's not too heavy and the walls are fairly consistent in thickness.

Here you can see the horrible glazing. I went from being too heavy-handed with my glazing to being far too light. It would have been a great mug otherwise.

Here you see the bottom. Notice the nice shaping at the bottom of the handle?

Another handle free tea cup.It's much heavier than the one above.Still very usable, as you can see.

Some Ceramics

I took a beginner's wheel ceramics class last year. I always wanted to learn ceramics, but the last time I handled clay was in 1995 when I took a sculpture class. I was fairly good at it, but transporting my projects without a car was sheer hell. I didn't have a car again and an inclination to pursue a class until lately.

I'm not used to things being very difficult. Motivation is difficult for me, not execution, I find. Therefore I was practically traumatized the first half of my first class by how hard wheel ceramics was turning out to be. (No pun intended. :P) Also, it's messy. Me and messy aren't really friends, I don't care if you've seen my closet. I don't like my hands gooey. So I was having a near OCD experience, as well. I had to get over that... for the most part.

By the second day I had it well enough for my blood pressure to drop back to it's normal low. (Maybe that's why get-up-and-go is a problem for me... my blood pressure usually causes nurses to say, "How do you feel? Are you tired? Do you mind if we try this again?")

I started with Danish Sand, which has a neighbor called Danish Plain, who is sand-free. I went this route instead of more earthy clay because I made it clear to the instructor from the get-go that my aim was porcelain. I love Asian pottery. I would be thrilled to make a perfect celadon bowl. If I started with Danish Sand and then moved on to Danish Plain he thought I would be fairly well prepared for the feel of porcelain.

Three small pieces: brown bowl, white bowl, and sake cup

Bowl of Danish Plain clay, about 3" wide

My best piece is the porcelain sake cup I made near the end. I am both frugal and stubborn, and I have small hands, so I was not daunted at all by trying small pieces. It's about 1 1/2" in diameter.

Inside view of sake cup. This is fairly true to color - it's greenish.

Bottom of sake cup. The footing on this is about 1/8" wide. The outer graze is blue-gray.

After I used up the Danish clay, I got some coarser clay to try to knock out some quick pieces. This bowl was one result. I was unhappy with how it trimmed up, so I did some carving on it to cover it up. The glaze dripped a bit, but at least it dripped consistently. :P

Earthenware bowl, about 4" wide

Bottom of earthenware bowl

There are more pieces as well, but I don't want to inundate the blog with photos all in one sitting. More on the other pieces later.

Second layer

Progress on the paper mache so far:

Finch

Bowl

Not a lot of visible progress, but it's a somewhat slow process because I need the layer to dry adequately.

On the knitting front
I've started making an alpaca/merino wool cream colored hat in a somewhat cloche style. I'll probably have to knit it once, try it on, then knit it right. :)

Art from Crap

Er... I mean, from rubbish.

Since I don't have a pottery wheel or an art studio or anything glamorous like that, if I feel like sculpting I have to go very unspecialized. As in paper mache. It's hard to get less specialized than paper, flour, and water.

You may be wondering what Aldous Huxley's Brave New World has to do with paper mache. Alas, very little! I was thinning my herd of books and it is the one to go down for the benefit of the rest. It would have gone to a thrift store except it's basically falling apart, it's so old. And value in old books really only exists if they are signed or first editions or some such - not a cheap 1960's paperback. However, I am going to go ahead and try to play it off like I meant to use A Brave New World - that somehow makes it more artistic: pretense. :P

I am molding it around a plastic Christmas ornament that I got for 25 cents at the local Goodwill Outlet store. Did I mention this craft is also cheap?

And I'm making a finch. I just like finches. They are cute little noisemakers.

It'll all come to together in the end. I hope.

Drawing a day #1

Here it is:
Alas, I am rusty, in art and photography. I don't know if you can tell, but the above is a rose. It's not a real rose, but a cloth hair clip rose that I snagged off my dresser at 8:15 in the rush to get something drawn. It may have been a little too ambitious, because it took me until I was nearly finished to be warmed up. Just how long has it been since I have drawn anything? I know I was pregnant at the time, and the baby is now four months old. So at least four months, if not longer. Oh, my. Well, hopefully tomorrow I plan ahead a little more and draw something I am a bit more proud of?

A drawing a day

To keep some sense of motivation going, I'm beginning a new scheme on this blog:

A drawing a day.

This daily drawing will have certain perimeters:

1) it will be exactly 3"x3", because I am hopelessly anal and anything larger would take me a couple days (Ok - I exaggerate slightly, but the gist of it is I need to not paint myself into a corner here and shoot for something attainable);

2) it will be completed and posted by 9am PST;

3) it will be drawn, of course.