This is a portrait of my friend taken from a photo when we were in Bristol lately. She wouldn't let me sketch her on the spot, so mmm, I've had to resort to underhanded means, but hey, my friend, if you see this and you want it deleted, no problemos. One of my flatmates recently let me sketch her while watching tv which was cool. It turned out differently, but had more hard lines in, which was good for me, because I want to put more contrast in my work. Other things going on - went to Vanity Fair exhibition last weekend. Very cool. There was some very cool 1920s/30s shots of celebs and there was one of the more recent ones which for some reason I really liked. It was of an artist wearing t-shirt and shorts standing front-on to the camera in his studio with his painting to the left and his art gear strewn around the room. I thought it was not so much "arty" but just very honest. I liked that. I've been writing some poetry lately and I've taken inspiration from this book of women Scottish poets I'm reading and find that there too, I like the poems which are honest. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of explaining this "honest" concept, so I'm going to go. Starting a figure drawing class next week, so hope to post some stuff from that soon. Adios amigos.
I went to my first figure drawing class tonight, which was cool. We did contour drawings. I faithfully stuck to the not taking the pencil off the page, hence the wobbly legs and feet, but I always get a kick out of contour drawings, so maybe was also bit more creative that I was meant to be. I think my flatmate was a bit shocked about me drawing nudes, hence the "You draw naked people??!") comment, but drawing people is the best thing. Other news, went to see Impressionism & Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy yesterday. Stand-outs for me were William McTaggart's "The Storm". Awesome, passionate painting, you have to see it full-size but for a little taste see http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/5139?initial=M&artistId=3308&artistName=William%20McTaggart&submit=1 . At first all I saw were the stormy waters, but then the more I looked, the more I picked out other things in the painting. There was this amazing figure of a woman in the painting, so small, yet you could see her hands tucked up tight to keep her cloak close, with the wind sweeping her skirts against and away from her. Other stand-outs for me were James Guthrie's paintings with their gold hues and dappled lights.
