Eureka! I don't hate charcoal, completely, much, at all
Quote of the day: "Knowing you," he had said mockingly, "you would stumble across some previously undetected manticore and arouse it from a thousand-year nap. After several student maulings, months of terror, and untold thousands of galleons of property damage, you would slay it gloriously, and Gryffindor would win the House Cup. I'd rather walk you back. I'm usually out terrorizing the careless at this hour, in any case. Near Gryffindor seems a good place to start." (Blood Magic, GatewayGirl)
Semi-productive day so far today. A little (emphasis on little) lawn work this AM while it was still relatively cool. Off to bank. Then to CFOP to pick up some gessobords (more on that later). Found a portfolio, a foldable, zippered, cloth thing, 20 x 26 I think, looks sort of waterproofish. More on that later, too. Impulse purchase--a sheet of cream Rives. Maybe I'll try that for something, instead of the white Rives.
Went to FedEx on Newberry, printed out more homework, a couple of Degas nudes, a couple of Eakins and a something or other.
Hell, I even had buffet at Taj but it wasn't worth it. I don't usually have the dessert, but I took a small dish of gulab jamun. How does someone make mediocre gulab jamun? On the plus side, they had papads. They never offer papads on the buffet.
Anyway, Dan started hinting last week that I could try silverpoint for one of the poses. Hinted again on Thursday. At the end of class Thursday I said "Dan, if I did silverpoint, would I need a panel the same size as the Rives?" "Oh, no," he says, gesturing with his hands, "like this." So I picked up both a 9 x 12 and an 11 x 14. I picked up (on Thursday) an Xacto pin vise at Hobby Town. I know, having tried it out, that it will hold 18 gauge wire, maybe larger. I had 18 at hand.
The portfolio is to protect the gessobord from charcoal dust and other dangers.
I'm quite leery of trying to do a pose in silverpoint. It is unforgiving. And my drawing skills need a lot of forgiveness. Charcoal and graphite both allow, to some extent, corrections. Silverpoint, not so much. I'm thinking of doing an undersketch in light, hard graphite to try to get the proportions correct, and then do the drawing.
I've had my best success so far with the charcoal. Had a breakthrough, that whole teachable moment thing, on Tuesday, I should write in down in my calendar, oh, I'm writing it here.
There is a hierarchy of light.
Okay.
And shadows group, they're almost always the same or damned close.
Oh, that's good to know. Make dark marks, leave them alone. (Remember the zone of tangency.)
Sort of.
Light diverges. There is more range between the light tones.
Ooh, also good to know.
The eye does not have a fixed aperture.
Okay.
Yeah.
I knew this.
The eye adjusts as you move it around the scene. It lets in more light. It makes things appear to have the same values. ("Here, look at this painting by Georges de La Tour, see where the lightest light is, see how the light drops off...)
Damn.
On Thursday, I really tried. I focused, physically, on the lightest point on the model (June) (well, maybe not the lightest point, this seemed to me to be a very specular highlight that would show up depending on how she held her hand on her right ring finger's nail). Anyway, I did my damnedest to hold my focus on the thigh and mentally shift my focus to, say, the abdomen. It seemed to work.
It's my best so far. I think so, anyway. He's going to give us another day on it, maybe next week. I keep looking at it when I'm outside.
I do keep carving the waxes, just a little bit at a time. Oh, and learned to make a wire and bead "fibula" at the class meeting this week just past. Yeah. That's authentic.
And I picked up a plastic powdered sugar shaker at Kithens and Spice. I'm going to fill it with powdered charcoal. I'm going to try powdered charcoal for paper toning. Maybe I'll get less streaking and more evenness.
I had two tomatos that I grew myself. Okay, I bought the plant at Lowes. But it's been mine for a while now.
Semi-productive day so far today. A little (emphasis on little) lawn work this AM while it was still relatively cool. Off to bank. Then to CFOP to pick up some gessobords (more on that later). Found a portfolio, a foldable, zippered, cloth thing, 20 x 26 I think, looks sort of waterproofish. More on that later, too. Impulse purchase--a sheet of cream Rives. Maybe I'll try that for something, instead of the white Rives.
Went to FedEx on Newberry, printed out more homework, a couple of Degas nudes, a couple of Eakins and a something or other.
Hell, I even had buffet at Taj but it wasn't worth it. I don't usually have the dessert, but I took a small dish of gulab jamun. How does someone make mediocre gulab jamun? On the plus side, they had papads. They never offer papads on the buffet.
Anyway, Dan started hinting last week that I could try silverpoint for one of the poses. Hinted again on Thursday. At the end of class Thursday I said "Dan, if I did silverpoint, would I need a panel the same size as the Rives?" "Oh, no," he says, gesturing with his hands, "like this." So I picked up both a 9 x 12 and an 11 x 14. I picked up (on Thursday) an Xacto pin vise at Hobby Town. I know, having tried it out, that it will hold 18 gauge wire, maybe larger. I had 18 at hand.
The portfolio is to protect the gessobord from charcoal dust and other dangers.
I'm quite leery of trying to do a pose in silverpoint. It is unforgiving. And my drawing skills need a lot of forgiveness. Charcoal and graphite both allow, to some extent, corrections. Silverpoint, not so much. I'm thinking of doing an undersketch in light, hard graphite to try to get the proportions correct, and then do the drawing.
I've had my best success so far with the charcoal. Had a breakthrough, that whole teachable moment thing, on Tuesday, I should write in down in my calendar, oh, I'm writing it here.
There is a hierarchy of light.
Okay.
And shadows group, they're almost always the same or damned close.
Oh, that's good to know. Make dark marks, leave them alone. (Remember the zone of tangency.)
Sort of.
Light diverges. There is more range between the light tones.
Ooh, also good to know.
The eye does not have a fixed aperture.
Okay.
Yeah.
I knew this.
The eye adjusts as you move it around the scene. It lets in more light. It makes things appear to have the same values. ("Here, look at this painting by Georges de La Tour, see where the lightest light is, see how the light drops off...)
Damn.
On Thursday, I really tried. I focused, physically, on the lightest point on the model (June) (well, maybe not the lightest point, this seemed to me to be a very specular highlight that would show up depending on how she held her hand on her right ring finger's nail). Anyway, I did my damnedest to hold my focus on the thigh and mentally shift my focus to, say, the abdomen. It seemed to work.
It's my best so far. I think so, anyway. He's going to give us another day on it, maybe next week. I keep looking at it when I'm outside.
I do keep carving the waxes, just a little bit at a time. Oh, and learned to make a wire and bead "fibula" at the class meeting this week just past. Yeah. That's authentic.
And I picked up a plastic powdered sugar shaker at Kithens and Spice. I'm going to fill it with powdered charcoal. I'm going to try powdered charcoal for paper toning. Maybe I'll get less streaking and more evenness.
I had two tomatos that I grew myself. Okay, I bought the plant at Lowes. But it's been mine for a while now.