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renies_sketches
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Name: Irene
Gender: Female
Interests: Loving God with all of me, sharing life with my husband and son, breaking bread with family and good friends, learning about things like I'm a kid again, and discovering beauty in the ordinary.
Occupation: physical therapist&art student
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/27/2007
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| In the absence of time to create with my hands, I’ve opted for the instant creativity that a camera affords. One click and you can capture so many ideas. I’m new to the world of photography, but I already like how it forces me to look at the world around me in search for angles, proportion, color, and action. I love how the moment can be captured right away, or it can be lost forever if you’re not fast enough. Most of all, it makes for very fun dates with my hubby.
Our last date was to merry old England circa 18th century.
Ye Olde Griffin -- oooh, scary
Ye Olde Hallway to the Dungeon-- ooooh, even scarier
Ye Olde Copper Gate
Ye Poor Olde Bird in the Gate
Ye Old Church at Sunset or for some a Hallucinogenic Trip
Ye Olde Fuschia Door (it is a little known fact that fuschia was ye hotte colour of ye century)
Ye Olde Entryway
Ye Olde Church Courtyard where we stood and asked, "please sir, can we 'ave some more?"
Ye Old Rule of Thirds Photo-- this is my favourite one.
More of Ye Old Church
Well, okay, these pics are really from downtown St. Louis. We wandered around and found some great architecture at the public library and an old church. Caleb has a great eye for photographs too and we have so much fun avoiding traffic in the middle of the street or laying at strange angles on the sidewalk just to get the right shot. The picture that is my favorite was a collaboration of the two of us. He took the shot and I edited the photo to create what you see. It was so nice to get out for a night on the town, breathe the musty fall air and spend some quality time with my favourite (favorite) man in the world! We ended the night with a brisket sandwich and chips from the Taste of St. Louis Festival. And some gelato from the Gelateria. Even though we can't travel the world right now, there is still plenty to discover in our very hometown. Thanks hubby for a most excellent, romantic date night-- what will our next adventure be?
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| Just wanted to let you know that we have a new family blog.
xanga.com/ichou
Subscribe to it! Subscribe to it! That is a command of gentle persuasion followed by some hypnotism.
I'll still be posting here about art and my personal endeavors. But I have to say, I'm covered more in baby spit up than charcoal dust in most recent days. So there's much more to write about on the other blog :)
Not to worry, I still have more pictures from my last semester in art class that I will post soon.....
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| The question of the day is how can a person teach art? After all, art comes from a person's heart, their mind's eye and from their natural ability? I don't think a person can teach another how to create, but one can teach someone more skills that give additional outlets to how they create. That's what my teacher tried to do the second part of the semester. I dont' think he did a great job of explaining what we were doing-- he wanted us to experiment with new techniques. But we didnt' know how to use these new skills so rarely did my work turn out the way I wanted it to. But I do appreciate the adventure of experimenting-- of trying and learning new things--- well, that is until it's time for our final critque and we get a grade....
The experiment-- collage and drawing--how to form a happy marriage of the two using texture and different mediums(
paint, glue, charcoal, chalk, crumpled peices of paper). As a side note, the way we created texture was to take our 4 dollar a sheet drawing paper, rip it up, and glue it back together again. I'm cheap, I admit it. When i was kid, I drew on scratch paper-- backs of old receipts, newspaper ads, or homework that I forgot to hand in, etc. If I ever got a sheet of white, virgin paper, it was a treasure. And now, I love, LOVE my beautiful white drawing paper-- it's this wonderful large canvas to work on. Ripping it to shreds made me cry a little inside-- okay-- a lot.
So on my reconstituted sheet of paper, we were to draw, paint, create a still life of a plant. The idea of mixed media is hard for me to recreate. I am still learning how one medium can be used, how am I suppose to knwo what plays well with others? I don't. To the right is my experiment gone bad. I think it looks bad. Lke Cruella DeVille's hair after she stuck her hand in the light socket. Or an exploding dalmation (the horror!). This is an example of excess causing chaos-- to many lines, too many layers, too many different textures. It was disheartening to create this because it doesn't look like a plant. Or even an abstract of a plant. Or even a abstract of an abstract. Sigh. My teacher looked at it and even said, "better luck next time."
Okay. Round two. I painfully tear up another sheet of my drawing paper for the next still life. It's a mannequin, bottles, brushes, and a shirt in the background. It's a little better except for what I call "iron boob syndrome." There was a time in art history in which women's breasts were painted as perfect circles like they were encased in some kind of armour-- sticking straight out. Perky but not very realistic. Those artists were from the 13th century and it was the style of that era. I live in the 21st century, and this was an accident. The mannequin was not wearing a cone bra...
On a happier note, I was getting the idea of mixing textures a little bit better. Look at the bottles and brushes. The whole piece is less chaotic, though I could have had more contrast in dark and light in some areas. Still the verdict is out whether this was worth tearing up expensive paper. But it was easy to store in the locker afterwards since you don't have to worry about it getting wrinkled, since that's the point....
 Our last project, we were free to do whatever we wanted. I opted to just use charcoal. My teacher challenged me to draw big and to experiment with textures just using charcoal. Okay, I can do that. At first, he told us to concentrate on just one part of the skeleton. I chose the skull. This was on 2ft x 3ft drawing paper (intact, not ripped, mind you).
His second pass he told me to add the neck and
collar and ribs. Okay, I thought, I could extend it just a little bit
so I added a second sheet. I felt more free with my strokes this
round. I made things more abstract than I usually do-- not as precise and more "emotional" (as my teacher calls it)
His third pass, he asked "what about
the pelvis?"
So out comes a third sheet that had the pelvis and the
femur. The drawing that gotten so big I took it off my 9 ft board and
was completing it on the ground-- kneeling and reaching with charcoal
covering every inch of my arms and legs. All this while being 8 months
pregnant
 When I was done, my teacher said it looked incomplete, so I
took out a fourth sheet. and finished the legs. The cheapskate in me tallied up the bill to a whopping $16 bucks for this "beauty."
In the end, I had 12
ft tall skeleton.  I did not intend to make this, it made itself. And bigger does not mean better. I'm just tall enough to look inside the pelvis or shake its bony dislocated hand. Splendid. Thankfully, my classmates had sympathy (read "pity") on me and helped me piece it together and transport it to hang. My teacher dangled dangeously on the edge of a bench almost falling to his death to hang this (why we dont' have ladders at school is beyond me). He asked, "why did you make him so big?" Really? would he not take the blame for tricking me into drawing the entire skeleton magnified 4 times the normal size? Not sure what skill I was suppose to practice here. I told him he still owes me $16 bucks....
It's not the most beautiful piece I've done. Well, it's not the most beautiful still-life to draw. I mean, a 12 ft tall skeleton is not exactly what you bring home to mom so she can put it on her fridge. I thought about putting it up in the house to scare Caleb-- like when he opens the bathroom door after a shower. But our ceilings are only 11 ft tall. I also thought of a million different practical jokes I could do, but in the end, I couldn't see my pregnant self lugging the drawing around or being able to make a fast get away. Plus, I figured my unborn child and I had inhaled enough charcoal dust so Skeletor was gently laid to rest in the trash. Good bye Skeletor, good-bye-- your life was short, but your legs are long and they extend in our memories forever.
I am a little sad that the last thing I will draw in a while is an oversized skeleton. Since my son's birth, I've put down the charcoal in exchange for rattles and bottles instead. My different color palattes are the range found in his diapers. So my art endeavors have changed a little. I may not have 4 hours to draw anymore but I'm sure I will still create . So stay posted for more.
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| You know it's been a long absence from the blogging world when even xanga notices you've been gone and sends out the generic "you haven't posted in a long, long time" e-mail. It's as if they're asking, "do you still need this space?" Well, yes, I still would like my little tiny, minute space on the internet that I carved out even though no one really reads this.
So.... having a baby takes up a lot of time! Now that my son is threemonths old have I even started thinking about art again. So without further ado, here are some of the projects I worked on in the fall semester in drawing.
I love drawing fabrics! I have a lot of fun with the shadows in the deep pockets of the folds and the highlights from the fabric ridges. This was an exercise on brown craft paper in charcoal. 2 ft x 3ft. Below is a closeup:
Below is a perspective study of a corner in our art room. The idea was to focus on lines, angles, and background/foreground. Though I can't really draw a straight line to save my life, I think it turned out decently. My hubby likes how when you look at it from far away, it looks very abstract until you get close enough to see the details and you realize it is just a corner of a room. This is charcoal on white printmaking paper
4 ft x 6 ft
 
Next we did a study about glass using jars. I didn't like how dark the drawing got at the end. My teacher wanted me to increase the contrast by making everything darker, but well, it just looks dirty. I'm not sure I captured the transparency of glass. And don't even ask me how many pieces of charcoal were harmed in the making of this drawing... Not my favorite piece...
Same size and materials as the previous drawing.
 
So I thought the semester would be very much like the last one-- lots
of still life studies so I can improve my skills at "searching for
information" to draw from these objects. Things were off to a good
start But then.... things started veering-- like a car wreck in slow
motion. You know it's going to get really ugly, but there's now
stopping it. My teacher-- the very same man who single handedly shaped
the way I see and draw-- is the one steering our class towards the
dangerous precipice of conceptual art. Then he pushed us over the
edge, whether we liked it or not. Next thing we know, we are
directionless while fumbling around until we hit bottom and find our
art bruised and battered-- and nothing to be particularly proud about.
Well, you'll see what I mean in the next blog entry.
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| I took a long hiatus from blogging this summer, not because I didn't have anything to write about but rather because I had too much to write about. It took me two whole months to sort out my thoughts, and I can feel the itch to write again. This is aided by the fact that Fall is here! The clear, crisp weather has broken my long spell of laziness during the suffocating heat of summer. Let's pick up where we left off....
I'm back in art school which reminded me that I never posted my other drawings from the spring semester.
 2ft x3ft-- charcoal on drawing paper. It was picked to be in the student art show. If you look closely you can tell it was two pieces of paper joined together (poor student syndrome) and forgive the slight reflection off of the glass since it was framed. I love playing with reflection and reality, and the real challenge here was how to create depth in the mirror (so you can look into the looking glass). The idea is to make the real bottle and utensils look solid while the reflection is more wispy/intangible.
WARNING: Pictures of nudes lounging below!!! For those of a more sensitive nature please overt your eyes. For those who can appreciate the human form, please proceed. For those who tend to giggle like they're back in middle school, I understand and won't tell on you.
This was a 20 minute charcoal sketch in figure drawing class-- also 2 ft x 3 ft. It was also chosen for the art show and you may have figured out won a nice, shiny, green ribbon (Honorable Mention). My first art show ever, my first prize in art ever. I'm proud, but perplexed as to why the jury chose this piece to win. I confess that drawing the full frontal male form weirds me out, but thank goodness for this little thing called "artist's rendition." It allows me to focus my attention on other body parts (like the trunk or the legs) but my de-emphasizing this man's "manhood" made him a little androgynous. Oops. Plus he was very flamboyant with his movements and posed very much like a woman. I was just confused all together when drawing this. Well, here's to happy accidents in art. Even if you don't like a piece, it goes to show you that someone out there will. And maybe even give you a ribbon for it.
This is another quick sketch (40 minutes, I think) from figure drawing class. As usual, it is fricking big (2x3). Overall, it's not a bad piece. I like the arms and the hand. The composition isn't bad though I wish I included her foot. I don't like the shadow across her stomach and the face remains unfinished. The neck is a little ambiguous, too.
But hey, I thought I would save you from looking at more naked old men, which unfortunately I had to do.
And now for your viewing pleasure....
I had to include this drawing which is our class collectively titled "80s Burt" Our teacher, just like us, was ready to draw some clothed figures for once. Burt, our model arrived in his wardrobe finest which was stone washed tapered jeans that were tight, tight, tight. This was accented with a jean jacket over his bright orange tee. The best was his velcro black sneakers and white athletic socks. When he was asked to take his position on the model block, he naturally chose the one see here in the drawing. Ha! Doesn't he look like he's taking his senior year high school picture? Awesome!
(As a drawing this is my worst yet since I amputated both his legs, part of his foot, and the top part of his head. I think I was distracted by singing Banana-Rama songs and doing the MC Hammer while trying to make even one coherent line).
Well, enough art for now!
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