Wednesday Life Drawing

I started a life drawing class tonight.

As you can imagine, scratchboard tends toward tight, precise, and meticulous, and that is great because it's the kind of thing I like. But to keep loose, to keep in touch with the ol' right brain, and keep balanced this class is the perfect thing.

We started with one minute gestures then short, ten minute poses for the rest of the class. Here is a sampling of what I did:

(Note the sweet ninja clock in the center)

Along the same lines I have started an 18x24" whiteboard done in the technique of Charles Ewing which I will post as soon as it is done. As much as I prefer the tight detail of scratchboard I also love and need the looseness of gestures, charcoal and painting. Since I juggle multiple projects at any given time I can have some tight and some loose on the go, allowing me to move from one to the other as needed to keep invigorated.

Enjoy!

~ Pam

100 Dogs Challenge #9- DaVinci

Another ACEO size ink painting.



This is little DaVinci, an Italian Greyhound.

Here's a photo to give you some perspective of the size if you're not familiar with ACEOs.



Enjoy!

~ Pam

100 Dogs Challenge #8 - Little Frenchie

French bulldogs are the breed of the month on WetCanvas for February - this little guy was so cute he prompted me to try something I've been thinking of but haven't done, painting with my Ampersand inks on paper (*gasp*).


This is ACEO size (2.5 x 3.5) on archival matboard. He was tremendously fun to do, though I have to get used to the different feel on paper compared to Claybord.

Thanks for peeking!

~ Pam

All hail the right brain!

I must say I'm feeling in a bit of a right-brain mode today. When I try to think of how to construct sentences and paragraphs to make this post make sense it's just not working - I am seeing a web of thoughts, experiences and ideas. It's easier to put something like that on paper (I've heard it called a 'mind map') than in typeface, but let's see what we can do...

Why right brain? I've been thinking about it because I recently found out that there is an HBO movie coming out about Temple Grandin.

http://www.hbo.com/movies/temple-grandin

I've admired her for a long time - I knew her as an animal science guru before I even knew about her autism. Since we don't have HBO I won't get to see the film right away (I'm sure we can get it online someday) so instead I watched 'The woman who thinks like a cow' on YouTube.

It got me thinking about brains and patterns of thinking... and as someone who self-identifies with right brain thinking...

Here's me and my husband....
(YouTube link - click this if you cannot
assemble furniture with your significant other):

... I see similarities with Dr. Grandin's thought patterns, but in other ways they are very, very different. So that got me thinking of other big divisions... and ultimately back to Carl Jung/Isabel Briggs Myers (another favorite pondering topic for me) and the differences between sensory and intuitive input... that's key, Dr. Grandin is sensory in the extreme, I am intuitive (but more in the middle of the spectrum).

I certainly realize that these are all names and 'tags' that don't correlate directly to neuroscience - there is no question that the right and left brain have different functions - and even though it's not quite that simple, for me it is one tool to help in understanding how others think.

I'm not going anywhere specific with this - just letting all these concepts float around in my head. I'm always fascinated by how others perceive the world.. I 'get' the concept that 'there is no truth, only perception', at least as far as what most of us experience as humans in developed countries most of the time.

This ties in to Buddhism as well...
srsly, it does.
But don't worry,
I'm not going there right now :D

It ties into the book I'm reading now 'In Defense of Food' too...
though that link is a bit more obscure.
I'll refrain from getting into that now as well ;).

The trip to Alamosa was fabulous this past weekend - meeting with other artists, basking in our squirrel-chasing, right brained tendencies (incidentally Rodman does tricks and commented that artists are 'so easy'... I wonder why that is? And further, I wonder who isn't easy to fool with tricks... Engineers is my bet).

And if you haven't seen this, you should: An Engineer's Guide to Cats

At the Alamosa show I got to finally meet Charles Ewing - scratchboard artist and inventor of the porcelain clay surface that is now used by Ampersand for all scratchbord and claybord products. He's an awesome guy and his studio was amazing! Open space, windows and light, dogs and a cat wandering around, art EVERYWHERE. It was inspiring!

I have a bit more about the show on my newsletter (as well as the missing 100 Dogs sketch #4 *mysterious grin*) - if you haven't signed up for the newsletter and wish to you can sign up on the right sidebar --> ---> --->

I publish it once a month and although there is some overlap with the blog, I can't do the exact same thing twice, so they end up being reasonably different. If you want to look at previous issues you can find them here!

And at the show I started a new whiteboard - here's the current status:


I'm calling her 'Little Abbie' (See Peggy, I promised you kittehs!). This is at the VERY early stages. It's funny that the underpainting is always pretty (a little impressionistic, but pretty) and once I start scratching it looks terrible for while, but then in the end it all comes together and I get that realism and depth, with still a bit of cartoonism (that is my subconscious style). I'll be sure to post this one here on the blog when it's done!

And I think that's most of the flurry in my brain... for now! I promise I'll be a bit more coherent in the next post (whoever voted for 'more right/left brain' and more 'personal anecdotes', well you can blame them for this post :D).

~ Pam ~