Kittys Drawings

Hullo!

After yesterday’s little wine-induced whinge and all your subsequent supportive comments I have decided to do something about it. Not one to sit around moping for too long, I’ve enrolled myself in a 9 week life drawing course at Guildford Lane Gallery. I had plans to sign up to a drawing course offered by the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) but then I saw this one on a link posted on Facebook which is cheaper, goes for longer and you get to participate in an exhibition at the end of it. Not to mention, they ply you with WINE too! Fantastic!
That said, I am very keen to try out the CAE options also, so as funding allows I will be joining on those too. They have a larger range of courses available and we shall see about the quality of teaching at both venues.
But I have always liked doing classes of any sort (kickboxing and yoga are in my repertoire hehe) and the Guildford Lane one is on Mondays and starts next month. What a great start to the week they will be – sure fire way to beat chronic Mondayitis.
YAY I am so stoked!

Now on to a couple of sketches from the last two days. Nothing spectacular, just the usual scribbles from the train. I struggle drawing faces quickly but postures and figures are much easier. Wonder why that is.
Scuse the huge-o-mungo pictures but you should all be used to that by now

Seeya later then

Blah!

Sorry for the lack of posting…Been away for the weekend down at Wilsons Prom – frolicking in the waves and having fun….Posing for photographs and trashing a dress that only LOOKS vintage. Trashing I say, but I think it survived all the sand, salt and clambering over rocks. I picked it up at the Salvos around the corner for a mere $25. I will show you photos when they are ready….

Until then, this is a post to say BLAH – Not feeling it today despite my best intentions. Having a slight low moment and think I need to get back to sketching and anatomy before I try and finish something. Even though I feel like such a failure for not finishing anything decent in ages.

You know what I realised not too long ago?? That in all my years of learning art and calling myself an artist – I was never really taught how to draw. In primary school it was all about experimentation and basic rules of colour like what primary colours are etc. High school was mostly about art theory and learning particular art periods and well known artists in history. By the time I got to uni, it was expected that you knew how to draw or that you had no interest in actual technique and rather just wanted to paint. The most valuable thing I learned from school was my life drawing classes which comprised of one semester during my first year of my Fine Arts degree.
Everything else I know is self taught – Any inkling I might have of anatomy and serious techniques are from books, my parents and now ConceptArt.org. All I have going for me right now is my talent alone….I know I have it but quite frankly, that’s not enough. I need discipline and structured learning. I might have books on drawing the figure and calculating perspective, but they don’t give you feedback or the environment of a classroom where there is interaction with your peers and mentors.
I wonder if it’s a failing of Australia’s entire art education system or just the schools I went to? I know here in this country there is not much value placed on artists, instead we focus on sporting prowess. This is changing I know, albeit slowly. I don’t know that if I went and enrolled in another university here in Melbourne, if they would teach all the things I missed out on. It is all well and good to encourage the growth of ideas and the creative process, but if you don’t have a solid grounding of technique then what good is your art? Maybe this is a contentious issue and people disagree with me…If you do I would love to hear your thoughts.

I think this little ramble has inspired me to pursue more formal training. There are adult courses out there and uni degrees…but I don’t want the same thing as what I was learning in Tassie. Time to look into it! Any ideas send them my way please
Thanks for hearing me out!!