It's 9:45 and I'm just getting started on today's blog entry! For me, that's a busy, busy day.

I spent some time browsing Amazon this morning (I didn't say "busy with work") while I drank my first cup of coffee but I'm proud to say I resisted pushing the "buy" button. I have as many drawing books as I really need at the moment and I haven't finishing playing working with all of them yet, so I don't really know what I'm going to need next.

Please note: Last night was Class Night, okay? The only thing I've done since the last time I blogged is go to class. So that's all I'm talking about in this entry. (Later note: There was a brief mention of laundry. Other than that, just drawing.)

You. Have. Been. Warned.

After I went out and browsed Meininger's yesterday, and spent $[cough] on pens (in the end, I forgot to call the Instructor, so I elected to go with "brush pens" instead of brushes and ink-inna-bottle) and a couple of other things, the instructor announced in class last night that we might not even get to ink!

I found that a trifle aggravating. If a class is advertised as "mixed media" and pen-and-ink is featured prominently, I think we should do pen-and-ink. (OTOH, she also said that brushes and ink-inna-bottle would be required if we did get that far and I have no intention of investing in those, since I understand it's a technique that takes, even with constant practice, at least a couple of years to become even competent in.) (And I know me. The first thing I'll do is spill indelible ink all over myself and everything within a ten-foot radius.)

Also, last night I failed not only to produce a masterpiece but even a decent representation of anything. In fact, I went so far as to fail at writing the word "cube" above a representation of a "cube." My handwriting, it seems does not pass muster. (She wanted "lettering." No one told me there would be "lettering" required. I have not practiced "lettering" and I object to having it sprung on me like that.)

Oh, I did fine at what the Instructor calls "value" and what I call "tone" and what is actually just using shading to create a 3-d effect. Few drawing "techniques" could possibly be simpler than that, though.

And the class was pleased to approve of my still-life-with-bottles in spite of Craft Teacher having brought in an Actual Drawing, complete with drapery and background, that made mine look like a rough layout.

(It would appear that Budding Artist failed to complete even one of the assignments. Either that, or she's a shill, introduced to round out the class numbers, and she found herself unable to produce anything convincingly amateurish. Could be...the stuff she does in class is very well-constructed and very polished for someone who claims to have never taken a class.)

Craft Teacher completed not one, but two 18x24 landscapes, making my own 9x12 effort, again, look pretty sad in comparison. She doesn't share my problem with getting color on the page. My charcoal or pencil strokes are always light, almost tentative. CT lays down charcoal as though her family got rich on selling the stuff.

It should be said that my own landscape came in for a measure of praise. In particular, the foreground of waving cattails was approved. But, again, I take that with a grain of salt. Or two. We all need to work a bit harder at the "helpful suggestions" part of being "critical."

And then, after wasting an hour on that and shading, we moved on to colored charcoal or "pastels." We all obediently purchased the brand recommended by the Instructor and boy was that a mistake. That was the softest, messiest stuff I've ever worked with in my life. I had piles of charcoal on my page. (My paper stubborn refused to grab onto 90% of what I laid down, even with 'blending'.)

Also? Presumably there was some "artistic" reason why we created a fantasy world sky with a science fiction ground and horror movie trees, but I'm a bit fuzzy on what it might have been. I appeared to be the only one among us who found it weird or noteworthy, though. Maybe it's because I lack "artistry" or because when I think of drawing, I think of more reality-based things, but that, and the fact that I'm the only non-fan of "abstracts" in the class, fills me with a bit of fear.

Actually I have about eight drawings to do for next week. Maybe nine. The Instructor appears to think these are taking us about five minutes each whereas for the beginner without skills, namely me, each assignment requires three hours of practicing before I can even think of trying to produce something I'd show someone.

I mean, if she'd assigned producing a set of "value" drawings as homework, okay. I could have done those while watching television and eating bonbons.

But noooo. I have landscapes, large and small, in colored pastels. (Fortunately I bought a second set of pastels, medium instead of soft. I'll experiment with those.) Still lifes, large and small. At least one abstract. Four drawings to create from a sheet of practice lines that we did last week. An interior. And one other drawing that has to include a kitchen sink, for reasons that entirely escape me.

I believe those last two are connected with next week's promise of lessoning on "perspective." I don't fear perspective, having spent at least a month studying the concept this summer. In fact, I feel confident of my ability to produce a reasonably convincing cityscape which, now that I think about it, might be another of our homework assignments. (She sneered at Craft Teacher and myself when we mentioned using a small ruler to lay out horizon and vanishing lines. Well...

Also, for next week's still life, she looked me in the eye and specified drapery underneath the fruit bowl. And then she promised to teach us how to do drapery, but we didn't get to it. Okay, sure, I have a book on the subject, but I hadn't had time to work with it yet!

Fortunately, tomorrow is another Unpaid Day, so I'll have a little extra time. (I mean, not fortunately because I prefer to be paid, but if it helps keep the checks coming in for a couple more weeks, I can live with it for a short time and the time itself will be useful.) (For a lot of things. For instance, if I don't get some laundry done, I'll be going nekkid.)