rivoaltus: My Heart Belongs to Fo Kwan

Last week we all worked diligently for two days on 'hatching and cross-hatching' our contour drawings. Was this super-fun? I would say, um....'no'- in general I got the feeling that this was just a lot of hard work and the question was: 'for what?' and someone said he didn't understand why we couldn't just paint.

In my head I've been trying to answer this question. I think that firstly, the drawing underneath solves some problems without paint. The brown marker we are using builds up a slight bit of darker tone thus laying the foundation for subsequent layers. Secondly, my opinion is that we are becoming more familiar with the still life before laying down paint, which is always good.

On Thursday I arrived early to class to find two other students there already working- and here I thought I would be the first. Apparently, there are some dedicated people here. Some had even worked on their drawings over the weekend and were almost finished. By class end on Thursday, once again I stayed later than most everyone and had my drawing finished and was ready to put on my single layer of Verdaccio- (black, white, and yellow ochre).

I stayed late with Fo Kwan and Christina, who is working with me on the rabbit still-life. Christina is a little behind, and Victor urged her to finish with Verdaccio before next class period. I would have never chosen her composition, however, now I really like it... she has the rabbit slightly to the right side of the canvas looking to the right, which seems compositionally wrong, but I think it works. I feel that Mary is looking down, with the rabbit at the animal skull and somehow it is funky and grounded in a way- and it seems almost like they are pleading to the skull.