End of Year

Facebook keeps reminding me I haven’t posted on my blog for ages. I wish it wouldn’t do that. The notification never fails to make me feel anxious – only because it’s an issue I know that needs addressing, and who wants to address issues?! Alas, I can only blog when my heart’s in it, anyway.

Uhm…What can I update you on?  Most people already know I left art school before it finished (shrugs) Despite the appeal of an art degree, it turned out that it really wasn’t my thing in the end. And seeing as I’ve got more work done since dropping out, than I did whilst the course was in progress, it was probably a good decision to leave. Besides, my art will continue, regardless of tutors, marking and a syllabus.

Something that isn’t art-related? My fitness is improving -that’s good. I do stretches each night and attend a gymnast class twice a week, so I should be doing somersaults by the end of the year -surely, right? I’m still banging on about doing the over-splits one day, as well. Apparently,  it’s not an impossible thing for me to accomplish. It’s amazing that now, at 30-something, I have decided to get in shape and have actually stuck to a routine. A plan I never entertained in my teens, or even my twenties.

Once again I’m prepping all of my new year resolutions and one of those include keeping up with blog -HAAA! We shall see.

That is all.

It’s February…

I’m feeling happy today. I like the first days of the month. Any month. The whole fresh start thing… blah blah blah. February is especially grand because it kind of marks the end of the previous year. Officially. Christmas grumbles are still floating in the air during January and I find it all a bit negative.

I last made a post here during July 2017. Wow. I know I’ve been a bit lazy, but jeez. I’m always so disappointed in myself when I leave these things too long. More so because I’ve managed to still make time for a bit of other social media nonsense. Namely Facebook. Although that is becoming somewhat of a tumbleweed for me -I’m making updates less and less. Not that it bothers me. Besides, the Instagram community works better for my creative output. Junk journals, bullet journals, writing journals, stationary… all catching my eye this year and lots of those things are being shared around my Instagram account. I particularly got into mail art and have enjoyed sending happy mail for a short-while now. I really hope all that snail mail continues.

So, a new month. I already planned my February spread in the BuJo. It’s basically an offspring to my diary. I think it’s always good to have visuals.

In other news, September will hopefully mark the end of the beginning for my art degree and I’m looking forward to moving on to the next course, of which there are many options. Although, Visual Studies is a compulsory area that I’ll need to focus on at some point, so I’m thinking it might be best to get it out of the way, especially as there seems to be a lot less, if absolutely zero, practical work to be done. Then I’ll most likely choose a painting course or maybe even sculpture. Maybe. I’ll keep myself posted about that. In the meantime, I’ll be hacking away at the sketches and paintings for Assignment 3 -due in March, so I’ll end this here. That’s it for now. As usual, I’ll promise to try and keep the momentum going with the blog.

Fresh, Fresh, Fresh

To the point? I had to start my art degree from the beginning. Hence, the gap between this post and the last. In the process I created a new space for my coursework – you can follow my new ‘study blog’ by clicking HERE or the using tab at the top of the page. If there’s any aspect of the restart I like, it’s probably the fact I’ve actually started a fresh learning log. I occasionally used to enjoy rambling on this side of the web and had to give brief intermission when this blog turned into a kind of coursework project. I can now return to my own art and natters once again.

I’m up late this evening. My sleep is a bit buggered after I gave work a miss today following the result of night-time nausea from 3:56am which proceeded to blanket me for most of the day.  I ended up sleeping on the couch some time in the early afternoon and awaking to an episode of Columbo. At least I feel a bit better now. I think I’m going to take a nap for a further four hours and then attempt to carry on with some productive stuff. My sleep pattern should be appropriately aligned by then and I’ll be able to post some art-related updates.

Until 4:30am it is…

Temporary Art

I completed the first part of my art degree, finally. I’ve not had much chance to post much about anything recently, mostly because I’ve been really busy with other projects that revolve around homelife, but also because I recently discovered House, the television series, and now I’m hooked. And probably beyond help. Pretty sure I’m due a new episode about now. Alas, I’m going to eat two-day old popcorn, nibble at some bombay mix and get going on the next exercise.

Meanwhile, you can see how my warm-up exercise went, HERE.

Morning Productivity

I’m happy that the first day of August started on a Monday. It gives a sense of stability and pattern to the month. It puts me at ease and acts as a kind of refresher. My plan was to wake up at 6:00am everyday this month and get something done before I set out to work. I awoke at 6:00am on Monday and then 7:20am on the two days following. Tuesday and wednesday’s sleep was nice and I had some wonderful, broken dreams, but sleeping doesn’t make art, at least not in the physical sense. Today I awoke at 6:00am, again. I’ve realised that the best way to actually stay disciplined to the alarm is to promptly get out of bed the minute you here the alert. Try to ignore the cold, or dreams, or the fact that your eyes still feel heavy and just get going. So now I’m sat here now, with my Earl Grey, feeling happy that I’m already making the most of the day. It’s already been decided that today is a blogging day, so there’s no pressure to create anything on paper just yet. Boards of Canada is filling the room and I can see the rain from my window. Looks like I’ll be wearing my mac today. 

Not long until the exhibition now. I’ve recently found out that a lot people are under the impression that this is an exhibition solely consisting of my work, but I am in fact submitting only the one drawing. I’ll post details of the dates and venue when I return from work, later today. In fact, speaking of work, in some ways my new job contributes to my artistic productivity. It enables me to have a balanced sleep pattern and there are regular times I can now set aside to get things done. Like the mornings, for example. This is my plan for the month…

6:00-6:15am Wake up, make a brew.
6:15-6:25am Check online art-related mail and social networking.
6:25-7:00am Blog/Draw/Project.
7:00-7:15am Breakfast
07:15-7:30am Wash/Dress/look… presentable(?)
7:30-8:00 More art…
8:00-8:15am – set off

Hats off to the people who spend longer than fifteen minutes getting dressed and looking fancy. The truth of the matter is that even if I spent an extra half-hour doing make-up or whatever, is that I’d probably look exactly the same anyway, as I really haven’t a clue about all that malarkey. Plus, I’d rather spend that extra thirty minutes painting and making art. If I can get through the whole of August and stick to my routine, then I’ll be okay. I’ll most likely be okay anyway, but I’ll feel better about stuff. Occasionally I wonder if my blogging is procrastination in disguise. After all, wouldn’t it be better to produce a picture? Journal writing, blogging and keeping records of daily routines is something I’ve always enjoyed, so I’m going to continue being guilt-free about the whole thing. 

Stood in an Empty Room, Looking Awkward

It’s time for a fresh blog, again. I find myself writing about things that I think should be in an art blog, rather than things that are actually important and relevant to my art path. I need to declutter the creative part of my brain in order to make room for more innovative junk -it’s getting pretty crammed in there, so I’m gonna dump it all here.

For a change, there is no aim to this blog, other than to keep it honest and very “Zara”. No doubt this blog will act as some kind personal journal at some point, I tend to get too relaxed after a few entries and before I know it I’m spewing all kinds of drama. It’s occured to me that maybe I want to spew. After all, this blog is public which tells me that there is a chance of somebody reading it, somewhere. I’ll try to keep it art-focused (as that is the intention) but there’ll be no promises as such. As some kind of pre-warning, it’s probably worth mentioning that I’m not the most positive of people and pretty much live my life based on but-what-ifs and worst-case-scenarios. It’s the only way I can function without juggling too much anxiety at once. There are also no promises of weekly posts or regular updates because sometimes I just don’t feel like doing reports; I have no energy. I often undersleep as well, and during those times I’m pretty much the worst person I know -I’m very grumpy and very sad. Most days my eyes are in a constant state of tiredness and I don’t want to do anything -even make time for art. Anyway, nobody likes sleep deprivation -do they? Although I quite like it if it means I get cool dreams and feel a bit out of sync for a bit. I might get short bursts of creativity if my brain is being a bit weird, and that feels quite good. I’ve probably mentioned this on other blogs before… I do have a tendancy to repeat myself -another pre-warning.

I’m hoping this blog doesn’t end up like one of the many unfinished sketchbooks on my art shelf. The books usually begin really neat… drawings I’m more that happy with for the first few pages, followed by a few rubbish ones, then one that went really wrong, a few doodles and notes (because at this point I’ve given up on the sketchbook being a sketchbook -it’s now on the level of “jotter”) ending with blank pages that will never be filled. At this point, I’ll buy a new one. I must quit this dreadful habit of, not only paper wasting, but giving up on my work that may, in future, be useful for ideas and learning curves. My art teacher at school always said ‘you must never throw art away and/or forget about it. If it’s something you dislike you can always work on it at a later date and make it better’ Not sure whether it’s a good idea these days…I’m already an avid hoarder. The idea of recycling appeals to me though, maybe I could chop it all up and keep the best bits…Hmm. Right, I’m going off on a tangent. Besides, you can’t really chop up blogs up anyway. Not really. Okay…special efforts to make sure blog stays alive and continues moving forwards. Circles might be okay, but not a backward motion of any kind.

Reflections on Life Drawing Class

I’ve obviously not been keeping up with this blog as promised, but these things happen. However, art has been happening and I’ve attended my life drawing classes as regularly as possible, eventhough I’ve just had to miss a few due to other commitments. Work is the biggest obstacle, but I’ve managed to attend two sessions so far and they’ve both been brilliant! It is, by far, one of the most friendly groups I have ever become a part of and I shall be attending the next one in less than a week (:

I have learnt so much in just two classes, and not just about the drawing side of things, either; The first thing I noticed immediately, was the importance of lighting. Something I’ve never really thought about until recently. During the first session, it came to my attention that the lighting was very flat, and as a novice ‘life drawing artist’ I found it difficult to capture the depth and shape of the human form. According to the organisers, there is sometimes a lamp set up to show definiton of shadows – I am particularly looking forward to a session like this and may even replace my pencils for white pastel on dark paper.

The second thing that came to my attention was the diversity of models. The first model seemed to have more curves than the second and each pose was very similar and natural-looking, whereas the second model had less curves, but a lot more interesting poses. It’s obviously a matter of opinion, but my preference so far, seems to lean towards the more dynamic poser. I like the challenge of attempting new angles and weird positions. I look forward to that particular second model posing again.

Thirdly, the seat you choose can also have a dramatic affect on the outcome of your work. There were some artists who could visually see more chair than body and at one point I could only see a mass of hair and bit of shoulder. I wonder… Is this up to the model to vary their position in order for a full class to view in turn? Should we, the artists, move to a more appropriate viewing area on each pose? Or should we try to ignore the chair and static objects, whilst making the most of our situation? 

I imagine to the more experienced artist that I may appear not to have a clue what I am talking about -ha! but these are the little ‘thought marbles’ rolling around in my head. Where else better to talk about these things other than on my art blog?

I shall see how some of these questions unfold as the classes progress.

Okie dokie. This evening I shall post some images of my latest work. At least it may distract you from my appalling grammar, eh? 😛

Over and out.