work in progress: ladies who lunch - in ink

The last medium we used in drawing class was ink.  I wasn't crazy about pen and ink, but I did find that I liked using brush and ink.  One of our assignments for class was to find inspiration ink drawings and practice copying them in order to learn different ink techniques.  I loved this inspiration drawing and practiced it for class.

source

I like how the eyes look like sunglasses because it is really hard for me to draw eyes.  I thought this idea might translate well to an Audrey Hepburn big sunglasses look.

I won't claim that my painting look like Audrey, but she was my inspiration for my fancy "ladies who lunch".  Of course I also had to try ink and brush on fabric, so I cut some muslin fabric squares and got out my bamboo brushes and india ink.  

First I copied my original inspiration photo onto a scrap of muslin fabric so that I could see how the ink went onto the fabric.

Then I practiced some smaller Audrey inspired ladies.

My first lady was a little long in the face...

These lips got a little crazy, but I added a necklace which was nice...

Next, I just went for it and painted some bigger ladies on 17 inch squares of fabric.

My first bigger lady.  I decided to do my next lady with a little tilt in her head.

I might wash my test ladies in the laundry to see how they hold up in the wash.  I can't decide if I should make these ladies into pillows or bags.  Maybe I'll do one of each.  

Don't want to make it?  Buy this is my shop (as a pillow), 645 workshop!

drawing class: sketches at the campground

Hubby and I went camping for the weekend.  Camping is something we really both enjoy.  We read, hike, take the dogs to retrieve in the lakes, and spend time decompressing from our busy lives.  It was hot of course, but we had a lovely shaded campsite with a lot of trees.

This was the view looking up from my reclining lawn chair.  It was so shady you could barely see the sky.

Camping gave me a chance to slow down and focus on some sketches.  I'll definitely be bringing my sketch book along on future camping trips.  Now I just have to figure out how to fit my sewing machine in our little pop up camper...

drawing class: sketches in the park

Over the weekend I slapped on a beret and headed outside to sketch.  OK, no beret, but doesn't it seem like that's something one should wear when sketching in a park?

Here's a picture of the park grandstand.

And here's my sketch.

A picture of a train car in the park.

And my sketch.

After two sketches my bottom was getting a little soggy as the wet grass was seeping through my blanket.  There is a fabulous train depot in the park that I would love to sketch as well on another day.

Our latest lesson in class was on perspective.  I'm really looking forward to learning shading.  The class is a lot of fun, but two four hour long classes a week really makes me tired!  Going to school in the evening was so much easier when I was younger!

drawing class: first homework assignment

My first homework for class was to draw two still life pictures a day in my sketch book.

These are all in pencil.  In class we learned a technique where you hold up a dowel rod to measure angles between items and then draw the angle on the paper as reference points while sketching.  It's the strangest thing but it works!  When I start a drawing based on these angles it seems all wrong, but as I keep measuring and sketching and tweaking and moving it things all miraculously works out in the end. 

Here are some of my better sketches.  (I'll show my fails on another day.)

This looks surprisingly like my real sewing machine.

random stuff on my crafting table

more random crafting supplies

kitchen chair

me: the first drawing class

I went to my first drawing class last night.  Here are my first impressions:

• I easily had a good ten years on every student in the class.  I may be the same age as the instructor.  Since I didn't have time to stop home after work I was there in my work clothes.  Everyone else was wearing shorts and tank tops and flip flops.  You could almost hear the tune "One of These Things is not Like the Other" start playing when I walked in the room.

• We spent about thirty minutes reviewing the attendance policy.  It seems like when I was in college they were just making the change from "you are adults and you only hurt yourself if you miss class" toward grading on things like attendance and participation.  I am a little nervous about being tardy as class starts at 6 and I have to travel through some major rush hour traffic to get there.  The student next to me didn't bring a pen or pencil to class.  I had to fish one out of my purse to lend.  I hate to pre-judge, but I think he might have issues with the attendance policy.

• Our supplies list is amazingly long.  I feel bad for all the kids because I know it will be expensive.  Maybe since we don't have to buy a book the supplies will shake out to be the same cost.  I know I would be shocked at the prices of books these days.

• We didn't do any drawing the first night, but we did watch our instructor draw as he described some techniques.  It made me feel more intimidated to draw in class.  I think I will feel nervous until I start putting pencil to paper.  I envisioned us drawing while sitting at tables, but we will be drawing on easels.  Interesting.

My next class is Wednesday night.  I can't wait to start drawing!!!