Art skills

I took my courage in my hands and signed up for another drawing class for the summer term at the Southwest School of Art.  Their blurb for the intro level class is that drawing is a matter of eye-hand coordination and can be taught.  I do think of drawing as a tool.  I want to be able to "take notes" of the things I see. Of course, it would help develop my skills if I tried drawing somewhere other than in class.  It does require practice.  I stopped carrying the little sketchbook I bought, because I found myself very self-conscious about taking it out and trying to draw.  I take pictures instead, now that I have a phone that takes pictures.  But then I ought to try drawing from the pictures.  Anyway, another attempt at improving my drawing skills. Due to the schedule, I am taking the intro class again (Saturday mornings) which is fine. 

My other plan is to warp a couple of the tapestry looms at home.  Just to play, to be improvisational, and to keep weaving.  Tommye Scanlin, a tapestry weaver and teacher, has been keeping tapestry diaries to keep herself weavng every day, and also has just posted about a challenge she set herself.  So in a small way I would like to do something similar. 

And for the next two weekends there are two fiber festivals happening locally.  The first is happening at the Old Oaks Ranch this Saturday, where they will be shearing alpacas and spinning directly from bunnies. That's in Wimberly.  Next weekend is the first Yellow Rose Fiber Festival in Seguin.  I think I will be working on planting in my yard this weekend, trying to move it from bare dirt to something interesting, but I do think I will drive to Seguin (less than an hour from my house) next Saturday.  The organizer said she has never had a successful sales day on the Sunday of a weekend festival, so instead she planned this for Friday and Saturday.  So I had to tell her, while she was trying to drum up enrollment for the classes, that the classes I wanted met on Friday, and I was going to be at work myself.  So we will see what they do with next year's scheduling. 

It still has not rained.  I think it last rained in January, or maybe early February.  Even with water restrictions, we are allowed to water new plantings, and I will be using buckets and handheld hoses to try to keep things alive.  I think I have already mentioned that even plants good for xeriscaping need water to get established.  We really need rain.  Two weeks ago, I swear, a thunderstorm cell moved east from Mexico, split about an hour west of here, with part of the storm passing north of us and part passing south.  I don't know what we did, but somebody really pissed off the local rain gods.  Anyone know what rain gods eat?  Gotta figure out what (or who) to sacrifice.

 

Comments

[Kim B.]

Wish I could share some of our Central PA rain with you. It hardly stops until it starts again. I'm tired of the chilly temps and dampness...oh and of two muddy, wet Golden Retriever who love ALL types of weather.

[Rob]

Well yeah, Kim, you guys really ought to share.

[Robbyn]

Rob - I like to use search engines to find images I like and then draw from that. I'm not saying that my drawings are good or that they are even identifiable as the original image (heh...) But the web is a tremendous resource even here - a never-ending source of models, landscapes, etc.

[Rob]

Hi Robbyn! Very true. I did that when I was hungtin citiscapes and found great photos, paintings, etc.