Well my second week is well underway at PAFA, in fact it's 2/3 over as the next classes happen Friday. This semester is a whole new mix for me, and I don't feel I quite have the new routine down yet. All new teachers, all new classes. I have two sculpture classes which is really new and I am looking forward to really exploring sculpture.
You know each semester there is that first few weeks where you try and get your wings, get the rapor down, the new energy flow, learn a whole bunch of new names. I have one sculpture class where we will draw blind conture drawings for about 45 min or a hour. The model we will sculp has here pose, so we draw her as we also sculpt her. Right now we are building our armatures and soon we will start tossing clay. The teacher Rob Roesch is a fun guy and is coming from a very different mindset. He's a very success non-figurative sculptor, and my whole thing is the figure, so it will be an interesting semester. I am trying to be open to his ideas and process even though his is not an esthetic that I really feel as I am not a big fan in general of abstract sculpture or painting, though I probably like abstract scuplture better than abstract painting.
The sculpture of my late dog Buster was done for the Introduction to Sculpture class taught by Stephen Nochella. This seems more my taste, our first homework assignment we had to do a sculpture that was supposed to be the "essence of an animal". Pretty broad and open, so I just decided I wanted to do a dog as I love dogs and then decided to do Buster who was a really cool do and a cool looking dog to boot. Next we will build larger versions of these sculps in plaster using chicken wires, burlap etc. So this was just the maquette. I haven't sculpted anything in over 20 years, since highschool, and this was fun.
Painting gave mixed results and I just wasn't in the right focus the other day in Figure Painting, so I wiped it out and will start over Friday, in my Still Life class I have a composition I am pretty happy with, I'll do a few more studies and then either do a final pastel or oil. I am so happy to be back at it again, I missed school during the break. I also started my Storyboarding class at Uarts last night and I feel i seem to have a good class. It's a long class, 6 hours, and I was beat when I got hoe as Tuesdays I teach at 9:30 in Delaware at DCAD (Figure Drawing) then have to scoot back up 95, try and eat something then hop the EL into Center City by 4 when the class starts. I won't be having much free time in the next month, but then things should smooth out a bit.
2 comments:
There was a time I'd have a hard time with a abstract/conceptual oriented instructor, now I'd be ready. Still, I don't think beginning students should be allowed to take this kind of car before the frame class until they can draw... OK for your skilz, but not some I suspect...
Yeah, I know what you mean. I guess they are trying to give you a balance , give you the other side as you will, by having the more abstract form of sculpture represented in a school where everything is pretty traditional. It's not my cuppa tea honestly, but I am open to experimenting. That's part of what school is all about, exploring ideas you might not want to on your own.
Do I think Blind contour drawing will make me a better artist.....not really. But I could be proven wrong.
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