Sixth in the series “Thoughtful Thursdays”
When teaching people how to draw, sometimes it is difficult to articulate my thoughts. A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes a thousand words still can’t explain the picture. Often, I can’t find the right word, so I will make one up. The funny part is that my students understand the meaning!
A woman was working on some boulders but something wasn’t looking believable. The problem was that she had inadvertently drawn potatoes and an oversized pinto bean! We figured out how to turn them in to rocks, and then she asked how to draw some grass behind the boulders. I was trying to keep her from making a lot of little lines all in a perfect row. Remember the bird “Woodstock” in the comic strip Snoopy? His word bubble had a lot of little vertical lines. To help her not make Woodstock word marks, the instructions came out, “You need to sort of bounce your clumpage along – that’s it, just horizontalize it a bit more”. She got it.
Some folks have taken lessons so long that I have become a habit to them. I tell them they don’t need lessons because they know how to draw. They tell me that unless they pay their monthly fee, they will not carve out time in their lives to draw. While they draw, we talk about art, drawing and life.
Truthfully, I love my students – we become friends, comrades, buddies in the artworld. I show them my art and give them the freedom to tell me anything they think about it, good or bad. We speak truth to one another and try to use known English words. It is helpful and refreshing and sometimes, it can be hilarious!
Swirls – 11×14″ – pencil
6 Comments
I remember those days. Good times…. Like neck worms on older folks. I love the drawing. It’s beautiful. The curtain looks so tedious. It’s just plain awesome, then again, when it’s something you’ve drawn how could it be anything less.
“neck worm”! I think I had too much caffeine that day – wow, that was a great laugh!
Diane, perhaps it is the high contrast of that area – black against white, AND it looks like a D, your initial!
I cannot explain … my attention is drawn to the handle of the vase and not the vase …
Jana, thanks so much for visiting my blog today! Always fun to meet other bloggers — and I am amazed by folks like you with artistic ability. Beautiful work!
And thank you back for visiting mine! I found yours through Stuff Christians Like and then “fell victim” to your chocolate blog . . . I am a weak weak woman when it comes to chocolate! Like you, I’ve always lived in the same state (California), but I had to dye my hair twice when it turned green (from copper in the pipes of our new house 12 years ago – It was only an emergency measure, so it might not count.) And I’ve never had short hair! Love your natural style of sharing your life through words and looking forward to following your blog!
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