With the esposo off to Disneyland with a few old co-workers of yore, I am home alone, unsupervised, and bored. With that said, what else is there to do except get out with the camera, no dogs, and go for a brisk walk in fine, cool, clear winter weather?
I stayed fairly close to home and thought it would be fun to look for things that are part of my daily life and try to see them a bit differently than I might if I was just out for a casual stroll. Looking and seeing, taking time on the small bits of my environment, always give me a lot of pleasure. And this is one of the things I “found” – a bit of our neighbor’s yard. The light was gorgeous – later afternoon, but not quite evening – and by cropping to a square and enhancing the image a bit, I really liked what happened.
Taking time to look and not having a leash or two pulling me along, much less pulling me off my feet, was fun. Suburbia is quite boring at times, but other times it produces a lot of great visual gifts. I got a few today, and that makes me rather happy.
More gouache, which I really get a lot of satisfaction in using. Here in the west, there are dry bed creeks which fill with water when it rains, creating a potentially dangerous situation with flash floods and scary fast waters. This is a bit of a calmer situation, but with the monsoon season, the potential threat is there.
Over the last year or two I have been doing pencil drawing with an amazing instructor, Steve Tanaka. He used to teach at our local adult school, but with the pandemic and virtual classes, he decided to try out meeting in the park behind our local library. A small group of us meet at a moment’s notice – well, a week or two’s notice! – on Wednesday morning, weather permitting. The primary purpose of the class is portraiture in pencil, but I have wandered at times to cat faces and trees, others have done horses or owls, but we draw. The doing is the point, and Steve’s tutelage is subtle, available, encouraging. He has a sharp eye and a lot of experience. He is a fine teacher.
This is a drawing of a portrait of a poor girl in India by a talented Pixabay photographer Aamir Mohd Khan. His portraits have a drama of a place I have never seen and are both fascinating and touching. His portrait is below.
I cropped the portrait to focus on the little girl whose face is so haunting. I wonder what her life is now – I don’t think it is easy at all.
My own drawing is done with pencil – graphite – using HB, 2H, 2B and 4B pencils on bristol paper, 9×12. There is still some work to be done, but I felt a need to post it. I have spent about 5 hours on it altogether.
Sometimes tweaking a photo can make something look a bit better than it does or more interesting. Here I played with various post production software and rather like the balmy look I got. Given the chilly winds we are having today, I think it was a good choice. As well, this just might make a good painting.
Handwriting has gone the way of the dodo, and cursive even more so. When I was teaching, it really surprised me to find students who were barely able to hold a pen or pencil, much less form readable printing or cursive. Apparently kids are forbidden to use cursive in hand-written work these days because they just can’t do it neatly. And while I disliked practicing handwriting, today I will say that I am so appreciative of the fact that it was part of my public school curriculum on a daily basis for grades 1-8. Today? Well, keyboarding is taught, and learning to touch type in high school has really paid off, but I still turn to pen and ink and paper, and on a daily basis I prefer quills I have cut myself, and iron gall ink I make as well.
Here in the US, National Handwriting Day has apparently been a thing since 1977. Choosing January 23 is because the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence was John Hancock, whose signature is famous for its beauty. The expression of “put your John Hancock here” or anything similar is a way of saying “sign on the dotted line.”
Times change and we need to adapt, but there are times when I think modern technology and the wonders of the computer age mean we lose what we use to have. In a way, the book Fahrenheit 451 makes a point for preserving older technologies, and having people memorize whole novels is much like the oral traditions of countries where not everyone could write. Working together, old and new can preserve our history – and what we consider to be a daily thing (i.e. writing a letter on paper!) can vanish. Digital archives preserve such knowledge, but to acquire this knowledge again means actual, physical experience.
If you look at my little blurb in the photo, you can see my handwriting is okay, but I don’t always make my letters correctly and have to backtrack over them. When I was in school, if I had to turn in a handwritten essay, such mistakes would bring down my grade. And if I made them – well, I just started over.
So, cheers to National Handwriting Day. Reading cursive and handwriting is important and the best way to learn is to be taught at an early age. Apparently students not taught handwriting and cursive lose out on far more than just an ability to pick up a pen or pencil and communicate on paper.
Come to think of it, do kids even pass notes in class? Or do they text and hope they don’t get busted for using a phone in class?
Ink, Yarn & Beer 