What A Day…Monday Is Exhausting!

Today, I was working on lino prints, which was pretty cool, but sore on the forefinger!  I managed to make a print of Newark Castle, which stands on the banks of the River Clyde just 2 miles from where I was brought up.  I haven’t got the work to show you as it is on the wall at college.

This afternoon was life drawing…AND we had a nude model!  I was told by my painting tutor that because there are people under the age of 18 years old in the class that we wouldn’t get nude drawing, but we did!  I was painting my skeleton that I started last week, and I saw the model.  I thought he would be clothed, but no, he stood up and removed his housecoat to reveal nakedness.  I was really pleased, and I think we all were.  The model was in his fifties but he had a fantastic body to draw from.  So our job today was to fit the body over the skeleton we had drawn.  I was really pleased with how I did, and my tutor said I’d done a great job, so that made me feel really happy, and confident!  Our tutor is so encouraging to everyone in the class.  That makes a huge difference.  He focuses on the positive, giving gentle nudges where he thinks you could make improvements.  Although, he cracks me up because he can’t say skeleton.  It’s a skellington! It gives me the gigglies but he can be forgiven because he’s such a lovely little guy.

I was exhausted when I got home.  Direct observation really takes it out of you, and there’s all that standing at the easel.  My arm feels like it’s going to fall off, but thankfully we get a break in between poses, as the poses are generally half an hour long.

So, I had to come home and work on my ‘My Space’ project.  I have to do 10 images in total by next week, and I’ve managed to get 7 done already, so I’m not doing too badly.

The first was an image of crayons that I stuck onto my page, then I marked out some swings on them in pen.  I then drew on some oil pastel and added Quink ink and allowed it to dry.  I finished it off by painting the swings using white acrylic.

The next piece I painted in acrylics.  It’s a self portrait in a Picassoesque style.  I like how it’s turned out.  I sketched it this morning while sitting in the college canteen before the start of class.  When I came home I blocked in the background colour using Cerulean Blue, then scumbled on Phthalo Blue.  I then worked on the individual elements by blocking in each colour then blending them.  My only disappointment is that acrylics dry far too quickly and I couldn’t achieve the blending result I was looking for, but you have to make do with what you’ve got.

So, tomorrow I should be working on my Painting project.  I still haven’t decided on a theme but I’ll decide tomorrow.  For now, it’s bedtime!