Homework for October 25

Drawing the negative spaces of an object. I had difficulty doing this and ended up doing a contour drawing instead.

Homework for October 18

Here the teacher specifically asked us not to do a grid and somehow 

I ended up making a grid so I stopped.

Homework for week of October 4

Class # 3

Self portraits without looking at the paper.

                                                   String...

                                                    Self portrait with handheld mirror.

This face cloth looks like a fortune cookie.

This face cloth looks like seashell.

Homework for September 27

2nd class

First class September 6th.

Draw a dot in the middle of lined paper, crumple paper and draw only blue lines. Next, draw hand without looking at your drawing.

Homework for next week: Three blind outline pencil drawings of a household object (a plant, a garment on a chair, a crumpled paper bag). 15-20 minutes each.

Back to school

I've decided I need more direction and discipline. I have enrolled in an introductory drawing class at Université de Moncton. The class is on Tuesday nights and I will be in a group with 20-25 year old art students. The class will be an introduction to form, perspective and mark making. I have purchased new pencil cases for the occasion. Classes start in two weeks. I'm ready.

True Crime daily drawings

While I was trying to figure out a plan to get myself motivated to continue technical lessons I kept up my daily drawing (in my usual style) with a series based on True Crime shows. 

Momentary change of plan

I've realized the reason I didn't like classical drawing when I was young is because it's boring and difficult. The Classic Human Anatomy book is dry and quite frankly, boring. I set it aside. My friend Vanessa Moeller, a writer, offered to send me a nightmare a day via e-mail for ten days (which turned into 13) to get me back into the habit of drawing a bit everyday.  I silkscreened her first e-mail to me on the cover of the sketchbook.

Nightmare # 2

Nightmare #4

Nightmare #11

The language of anatomy

Classic Human Anatomy

The project

Drawing is hard for me. Although I draw a lot, I’m not a very good draftsman or dessineur in traditional terms. For over the past 3 years I have been making a point of reinserting drawing and painting in my daily practice. At the moment, I am mostly making books: dream diaries, self published art books and zines with drawing and watercolor. I have just completed a book in which the exercise was to get use to a new space and a new direction in my practice. After 13 years without a studio. I suddenly had the opportunity to convert a room in my house to a such space. When it was set up I was excited. I went in and sat down. What shall I do? Nothing came. I just sat there. The next day I went in again thinking things would surely go better. I was uneasy and looked out the window for what felt like at least an hour. I decided I would have to give myself a daily art chore to get used to the space and structured studio time. I noticed I had a lot of pictures of smiling girls with dogs in the house (I don't really know the reason for this) so I thought I would start there. Everyday for 28 days I went into the studio picked a google stock picture of a smiling girl with a dog, drew it and then wrote the corresponding URL code on the page next to it. The code is simply to develop my very limited patience and to elongate the daily studio time until I got used to the space. The performative aspect of this daily gesture was my primary concern, the end result of the drawings was inconsequential.

Challenging my skills and patience are important components of my work. I am presently in year two of Song lessons in which I’ve decided to make a music video. Having a penchant for country music, I am reappropriating Waylon Jennings’ ‘Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys’ but have rewritten the lyrics to reflect the concerns of an artist. To my surprise, artists are quite similar to cowboys. 

This drawing project will be a continuation of the art challenge and bettering. I will continue drawing but wish to take drawing lessons and hope to eventually work on much a larger scale. Most of my peers disagree and think lessons could ruin the ludic, awkward quality of my drawings. I however hope that back to basics traditional style drawing classes could perhaps make my drawing practice less frustrating and help bring forth concepts and landscapes in a more efficient way. 

This project is made possible by The Marie-Hélène Allain scholarship from the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation.