Saturday, January 9, 2010

Chiaroscuro kit

This blog is being written even though I have no idea what I want to write about! You see, this is the problem; I never write blogs because I don't have topics, but my problem is that sometimes I am just too hard on myself on what would make a good topic. I always want things to be planned out from the start, rather than just going with it.
Right now I am sitting at the library with freezing cold hands because I swear they have the air conditioning on even though it is the middle of winter. There have been a whopping five library patrons so far, and we have only been here an hour and a half. Saturdays are so quiet! I am getting very hungry.
My classes start February 1st! I am really nervous. I have never taken online classes, and since this is an MFA in art, it is going to be pretty intense. I really should start some projects in the meantime so that I can get some practice in before the start of the semester. One of my classes is Chiaroscuro, which is the study of light and dark upon objects. In this class, I will be using various figure models in a kit as objects to draw under various lighting conditions. This will teach me to view objects in a 3 Dimensional fashion and produce a higher depth of shading in my drawings.
Well, all of this is good in theory, and surely will be good in practice, but I spent a whopping $440 (whopping is my word of the day, apparently) on a Chiaroscuro kit, which consists of several white clay-like castings that look similar to Greek statues. The kit contains a sphere, a cone, and a cube. It also contains two female heads, a female torso (complete with a butt, but chopped off legs), chopped off arms, and a set of breasts (all features included). At least this is the only nude drawing I will have to do in my program, and my model is a statue, but come on now! Why did I have to spend over $400 for this? And what exactly am I going to do with it once this class is over? The torso is about a foot long, so it is quite sizable. Let's see, let's think of all of the uses; 1. I could place the torso on my vanity and drape various necklaces over it in a "department style" fashion, 2. I could display the torso and heads in my living room or garden as "Greek art", 3. I could store the body parts in the closet in the odd chance that I may need to re-use them in future semesters, 4. I could display the torso in the window (like the Christmas Story lamp) and see how many cars stop to check it out, or 5. I could sell the objects on e-bay, and hope that a pervert doesn't decide to be the highest bidder. Decisions, decisions. Boy, is all of this amusing!
I am looking forward to my classes, and laughing about things like things eases some of the pressures I am putting on myself. I tend to be way too hard on myself. I think I would be better at my artwork if I didn't try so hard to make things perfect all the time, which brings me back to what I was saying earlier about my inability to write fluently. However, I see that I have not had a hard time writing this blog, and I did in fact find a topic. This goes to show that when you just relax and trust your creative abilities you never know where the road may take you. For example, I had no idea when I woke up this morning that I would be blogging about this! lol.

3 comments:

  1. i think you should bury the body parts in your backyard. i'm sure you'll never be around to see the face of whoever finds it, which does detract from the hilarity, but you can be glad that it'd make one hell of a good story for whoever does find it.

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  2. Your blog has been so much fun to read. I will start this class in particular, and I am actually having trouble buying that kit. If the kit is only for one drawing I just rather play with the photo they have.
    Will be nice to know how you did at that class and if you like it. And what you actually did with the kit after all..
    Regards.

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  3. I'm facing the same thing! desperately searching internet for something cheaper... to no avail

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