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May. 7th, 2012 08:10 amThe weather is so strange in this place. Saturday we had a clean-up-the-neighborhood service project, and while we were picking up trash from the ditches and side of the road, it was spitting snow on us. Today it's supposed to be near 70. Go figure. We're really hoping for good weather this coming weekend, though--now that it's open for the season, we're eager to get back to Yellowstone.
We're in the countdown zone for the end of school. So. Many. Things going on. But the only way out is through. The 7YO is going to be the grandma in her play, Stone Soup, and I'm glad we finally have her costume/props ready. (Er...special thanks to my mom, because daughter is wearing the dressup pioneer dress my mom made for me when I was 8 or 9.) The tricky thing will be keeping all the props from going walkies. People cannot leave the cane alone!
So apart from Serious Writing, I've been using art as my creative escape. I think I've decided that drawing to me is like poems you write really well, for an audience of one. I like showing people drawings that have worked out well, but I don't feel compelled to share my work with people on the other side of the country who I've never met. So I am deliberately nonprofessional about art, but it doesn't mean I don't want to learn as much as possible. Which is why I picked up Gary Faigin's book on drawing facial expressions. Wow, it's an excellent book! A lot longer than I'd expected, too. It goes through your basic core emotions and shows you what your facial muscles are doing in them. Just really excellent. So I'm copying a lot of the sketches from the book to train my hand and eye, and hopefully after that I'll be able to draw more interesting pictures myself. It's a skill that is extremely useful in illustration but kind of skimmed over in studio art, I think (because people tend to like portraits of themselves looking sort of pleasant, as opposed to angry.) Anyway, I was looking for more photos of natural expressions, and the book suggested news photos, but our newspaper had already been tossed. (It's not like people want you to photograph or sketch them in moments of grief or snootiness.) And then we had a family movie night, and I realized, wait! That's it! Maybe it's scripted, but it's supposed to *look* natural. So I think I'll be mining that for a while as I try to master some of the more subtle features of showing feelings on the face.
Now that it's Monday and the kids are going back to school, I'm going to be diving back into the writing. I can draw and talk to people, but it's a bit harder to talk with writing. :) Hope you all have a great week!
We're in the countdown zone for the end of school. So. Many. Things going on. But the only way out is through. The 7YO is going to be the grandma in her play, Stone Soup, and I'm glad we finally have her costume/props ready. (Er...special thanks to my mom, because daughter is wearing the dressup pioneer dress my mom made for me when I was 8 or 9.) The tricky thing will be keeping all the props from going walkies. People cannot leave the cane alone!
So apart from Serious Writing, I've been using art as my creative escape. I think I've decided that drawing to me is like poems you write really well, for an audience of one. I like showing people drawings that have worked out well, but I don't feel compelled to share my work with people on the other side of the country who I've never met. So I am deliberately nonprofessional about art, but it doesn't mean I don't want to learn as much as possible. Which is why I picked up Gary Faigin's book on drawing facial expressions. Wow, it's an excellent book! A lot longer than I'd expected, too. It goes through your basic core emotions and shows you what your facial muscles are doing in them. Just really excellent. So I'm copying a lot of the sketches from the book to train my hand and eye, and hopefully after that I'll be able to draw more interesting pictures myself. It's a skill that is extremely useful in illustration but kind of skimmed over in studio art, I think (because people tend to like portraits of themselves looking sort of pleasant, as opposed to angry.) Anyway, I was looking for more photos of natural expressions, and the book suggested news photos, but our newspaper had already been tossed. (It's not like people want you to photograph or sketch them in moments of grief or snootiness.) And then we had a family movie night, and I realized, wait! That's it! Maybe it's scripted, but it's supposed to *look* natural. So I think I'll be mining that for a while as I try to master some of the more subtle features of showing feelings on the face.
Now that it's Monday and the kids are going back to school, I'm going to be diving back into the writing. I can draw and talk to people, but it's a bit harder to talk with writing. :) Hope you all have a great week!
