1st TYVEK WORKSHOP SCHEDULED & ELLIPTICAL DRAWING #1

I am excited to schedule my first Tyvek Workshop! SWA in San Bruno, Ca. will host a 2 day workshop where we will explore different ways of working on this interesting paper. It will be Saturday and Sunday, February 2nd and 3rd. They have a very big room to work in so we can accommodate a large group. If you are interested, let me know and I will pass your name on to the co-ordinator. This is process oriented, so any subject you want to work with is fine. Now that there is a reliable source for the paper, I want to push the envelope as much I can to explore it's possibilities.

In the meantime.....I challenged myself to do ellipses this week, so I thought I should get to it! I used a Micron pen in a very fine point. I think the pen is pretty much shot, but I kept going. I will probably need a new one to do the 24 hour drawing challenge. I chose to work in pen because you can't erase. I'm sure I could have done a better job if I could erase, but I wanted to train my arm to make smooth arcs. Lots of practice needed. Interesting that I could work in one direction much better than the reverse direction. I started shading and then thought better of it for this pen drawing. I don't know if it is possible to draw an accurate ellipse without a tool or template but I'm sure I can do better than this with more practice. Years ago, when I was attending San Francisco State University, I took a class in Chinese Brush Painting. Lesson two was lesson one and lesson two. Lesson three was a repeat of one and two plus three, etc. By the end of the semester, I was going through newsprint like crazy and drawing for hours. All that practice created a steady hand and sure movements to make the characters. Your arm is never braced for steadiness in Chinese brush painting, so it is miles and miles of brush stroke practice that produce quality results. The "Carnegie Hall" principle (practice, practice, practice). Painting Still Lifes probably helps as there are vases, bowls, cups et. al. often in the arrangements. It's interesting how certain subject matter gets some people all jazzed and others not too excited. If required, I can get involved in most things, but left on my own, images of people always win out. This image is an unusual small clay Chinese Tea Pot set on a round mirror with the lid sitting next to it. There is a lazy suzanne behind with a cast shadow so lots and lots of ellipses. I hope to do a small drawing each day this week with curves.