I have a new development in the works, besides the lovely Rosemary. I made two modest proposals for workshops to be given at the Port Moody Arts Centre and they have been tentatively accepted. More on that probably in the forthcoming blogs. all I venture to say at the moment is that I will be one very busy woman til July, when they are to be held!
I love to sketch my cat and always have enjoyed sketching and drawing pets and other animals. Drawing animals from life is a;ways quite tricky because of course they move around so much. I find that by keeping my hand in constant motion as I focus on looking at Jazz and glancing down at the work seems to do the trick. Later I can go over lines, making the more accurate ones stronger. Sketching in the main masses works well, and fleshing things in later is often a good practice when working on something that may at any moment lift a paw, roll over or simply walk away.
So....world's fattest cat! Quite the "cupboard lover", Jazz is.
I keep many of my sketches in a "morgue". I have a filing system for categories such as animals, portraits, figures, architecture, and so on. i also refer to my sketchbooks, but I usually try to get a sketchbook whose pages I can tear out, so that I can add things to the morgue at will. (How ghoulish that sounds!)
Got some good things accomplished last weekend, Rosemary-wise. Hydrangeas and ferns were trimmed and, after a base coat of the background night sky was painted in, the photocopied fern and floral images were applied to the board with gel.
Still have not figured out what is going on to make all photo images I load only go horizontal. Will fire off a query as to what's happening on the website provider as previous to last blog, all was running as expected. Hope to have it fixed by next post.
I need to revert to using my sketchbook on the Skytrain in to work so as to maximize my art time. I find in the mornings it works best, but i may also use some of the time coming home as well and see if that sparks more energy for art in the evenings. In the book "The Creative Habit",well-known choreographer, Twyla Tharp writes that she has a routine before she sets to work with her dance troupe, doing choreography. I like the idea of a short meditation before beginning to do artwork. An exercise I find limbers up my hands,arms and brain for art invovles taking a large piece or pieces of newsprint and drawing large circles, jagged lines, squiggles and marks. So as not to be wasteful,I do use both sides of the paper. I will try that out during this next week for evening "arting" and report my findings.