Sometimes I picture you, sitting there, shaking your head, and wondering if I've ever been known to shut up. (No, I really haven't.)

Sometimes I also picture you wishing I'd go back to politiblogging, so you didn't have to pretend to be reading my daily outpouring of nothingness. I have to say, I'm pretty entirely off politics by now. I have a new obsession or two and nothing's colder than the ashes of yesterday's love, you know?

So. Having been offered (free) tickets to see this year's Hottest Traveling Broadway Show, Wicked, I'm going to have to miss next week's drawing class.

Seems a pity that there were only 5 classes anyhow and I'm going to miss 20%. It wasn't an easy decision. The whole plot of Wicked has sort of failed to enthuse me, no matter how much I've heard about it, and I've really been enjoying my classes.

OTOH, if someone had told me years ago that my All-Time Favorite Broadway play would be a musical based on Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, I'd have thought they were crazy, so it just goes to show that you never know. Anyhow. A Night Out, dinner and the theatre, is always fun.

Yep. This week and next week are my last drawing classes.

Relieved, aren't you? I imagine you are, so I'll wait a while to mention that I'm thinking of signing up for another one that starts October 5. Heh. (Different instructor, different focus. Should be fun!)

Today's Scheduled Meeting left a voicemail for me that she can't do it today, leaving me with rather more free time that I'd expected. I think I'll use some of that time right now to go get coffee.

I'll try to be more scintillating when I get back.

(long silence....)

Sigh. Okay, scintillation did not happen. Nor did the BEHM.

So, have I done anything I can talk about since yesterday? Well...no. Not really. I watched the season premier of Navy NCIS last night and was bored. I'm not often bored watching that show, but I was last night.

Drawing-wise, last night I completed my "room, interior" scene. Turns out I didn't have to redraw the entire couch. I just made the legs longer and pretended I didn't notice that it's still not quite...quite. And I worked on the lighting. The picture I was working from had an interesting lighting effect. A streak of sunlight blaring across the center of the page like you sometimes get when the sun is full-on a window. I tried to duplicate that, with limited success.

Then I did a kitchen sink. I didn't do the entire picture, as assigned. I ran out of time and energy before I got around to filling in the scene outside the window or the requested dishes.

This instructor sometimes gives rather fuzzy assignments. I mean...for what purpose a kitchen sink/counter/window scene? Is it supposed to be a study in perspective? An exercise in tone? An example of modeling for different substances? Does she care?

If it's just a test to see which of us will spring forth, revealing unexpected artistic depths, I'm in trouble.

I know that the other two will show up with pages thickly crusted with charcoal, and at least one of them will have ten textures and the other will display a nicely composed and convincing kitchen scene...and there I'll be with my nicely shaded sink, out-of-proportion faucets (I nearly forgot them), unconvincing cabinets, and empty, unfinished counter and window. All white paper.

Drawing instructors hate white paper. They always want you to fill the entire page. Bah.

If I have the opportunity to hang around here after work today, I'm going to bring my drawing stuff up, spread it out in the conference room, and try to do a more convincing sketch. Maybe something rougher, in charcoal, but with a better composition. (Composition is a real weak spot of mine.)

Or I could do more fabric. I need a lot more practice there. I had thought of going back to my original Fruit Bowl, erasing the poor attempt at drapery, and redoing it with my Burgeoning New Expertise but if I do that, no one will be able to tell how much I've learned in a week! So I'm leaving the crummy and embarrassing fabric there.