My oh my

(warning!!! Word heavy!!! And no pictures!!!!)

Where is the time going? I have been one giant lazy lump this month!
Still on a semi-break from drawing (not really, but I really don't want to share what I have been doodeling). I knitted there for awhile and set a pretty big goal of knitting one hat and one scarf every month to give to a charity at the end of the year (so 12 hats and 12 scarves by December...)- I'm ahead of my quota so far, but I haven't knitted anything in February. I'm attempting to re-teach myself how to crochet since it's been almost 10 years since I have crochet anything. I'll be honest, I never learned to read patterns back then...I didn't even know what the abbreviations stood for. Now that I picked up and love knitting, I thought I would learn crocheting the right way. If only the phones would stop ringing at work for me to pick it up and keep count of the stitches...Wondering if now is the best time to try to learn something, when I should stick with my original quota...

I will share with you that I have been drawing. In fact I picked up this years Vanity Fair- Oscar's edition based on the famous faces in the photos. I thought I would go back to my roots of drawing (man that makes me sound old!), of drawing famous people from the pages of magazines. I drew a picture of Minnie Driver, which looks absolutely horrible! Drawing on a curved surface (new sketchbook- won't lay flat), from a curved surface (magazine, which also won't lay flat) caused it to come out all wonkie- I'm sure if you looked at 1" sections you would be able to recognize her- but overall it's a giant mess.
Then this weekend I decided I needed to make something on a bigger scale, so I grabbed my 11" x 14" sketchbook, and ripped the page from Vanity Fair that has Jeff Bridges' picture on it, out of the magazine (no curves this time!...The Sketchbook is spiral bound- thank God!) So, I'm working on that now. It's bigger and I'm really paying close attention to detail, so it'll be awhile before it's done. I've had to redraw the nose 4 times already, so there's no telling when I'll be finished, or if I'll like the final product. Hopefully I'll be able to post the completed work, whether I like it or not :)
While drawing Mr. Bridges, though, I realized- I used to be so good at drawing the 8"x10" drawings for everyone that I rushed thru them, a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, I still drew what people wanted and with details, but I don't think I ever stopped and really LOOKED at the photos, and examined the photos details. I think I got so wrapped up in the "2 week turn around? I can have this sucker done in 2 hours!" that I stopped really seeing what I should have been seeing. So I'm taking my time with Mr. Bridges. I spent about an hour just looking at his right eye and getting the proportions correct and adding wrinkles with just the right shading. At this rate, I'll be done with it in a year :)

Oh and on a side note, I watched the movie "The Cool School" this weekend. I don't really know what to feel about it. I like watching documentaries...particularly ones about art (because they usually make me want to pick up a pencil or brush...which this one did)- but this one just left me feeling kind of void. #1 I have always hated pop art. At least when it comes to Andy Warhol- it's like he was making a big joke of art- or saying "this is so easy anyone can do it"- which has always infuriated me (They only talk about him for about 15 minutes). But then they were showing what kind of competition exsisted in this group of artists back in the 60s, which made me kind of sad. They would make complete crap, and know it was complete crap, but they wanted to have their stuff in this gallery, so they would hang it and silently be freaking out, but having a cocky attitude about it while the show was going on. It was just a little wierd to me, watching that movie and seeing these old artists relive their hayday...I'm glad I wasn't an artist in the 60s.
But about pop art...now I've become a fan of Banksy, which is pop art in a way- I loved "Exit Through The Gift Shop", even though it wasn't about Banksy (or was it? :P). I love the street art phenomina that's happening, that's clashing with pop art to create something vivid and real and new(ish). I don't care for Mr. Brainwash, and even while the movie was going on I took moments to go "He can't be serious" (and that was before I read online reviews about the movie). But I do like Banksy, and I'm probably partially crazy because I take time to look at the graffiti that's left around town to SEE it...really SEE it. I think it's amazing what can be accomplished with a spray paint can and a little imagination.