Wednesday, October 26, 2016

INKtober Cups Go Slightly Awry

Oh my, that did not go as expected. Perhaps I'm getting overconfident or merely a little bored with my cup drawing, but I thought it might be fun to sketch one as it lay on its side on the table. Actually, I was trying to get out of sketching the Edward Hopper painting, "Nighthawks" that is printed around the outside. And yet - I ended up sketching major parts of it anyway, but nearly upside down. I can't put my finger on what's wrong here, but something is certainly off.

And so I spent the next two days on these little food service coffee cups from my college days back in the 1970's. I hardly believe this is what we used as they only hold about 6 ounces. No wonder we lingered after meals, drinking cup after cup to get the appropriate wake-up and study buzz. Now I use them for anything from bacon grease to icecream and only occasionally drink out of them when I need a bit of milk warmed in the microwave to settle my stomach or dip graham crackers into. 

I'm always amazed at the faults that show up once I scan the page and look at it on the computer screen. A curve at the top of a cup that looked nice and even suddenly has one side higher than the other; sides that seemed the mirror image of each other now obviously aren't. It does make me more aware the next time I sit down to draw, knowing that for some reason my brain tends to "fix" things in my head unless I take a closer look. And I have to be a bit cautious about getting lazy. That cup on the right - I totally ignored that it had a curve at the bottom - not much of one but certainly more than what I ended up giving it. But I am still pleased with my handles on those two at the bottom.

 

4 comments:

Charlton Stitcher said...

Ah, the joys and difficulties of drawing an ellipse - so difficult to see let alone reproduce! And I'm so interested in what you say about your brain 'fixing' things. I know mine sees what it thinks it wants to see. Putting the drawing away or up on to the computer screen so it's seen in a different context is a huge help in seeing what's wrong, but I'm not sure it stops me doing the same thing all over again the next time.

Lucia Sasaki said...

Hi Sheila!
Sorry for my disappearance, I was really sick in July/August, with a severe bolt of hipertension and I am recovering since then. Besides, I was very enthralled with Facebook (you know that it killed many blogs, don't you?) but these days, with the overcoming flux of information I longed for a more personal space of communicating ideas aka blogsphere.
So...
Nice cups you have!
When I read that you used them in the 70's I thought to myself, wow, I was born in 1970...
Well, I liked your drawings, in these day I think that the fact that you are drawing, sewing, painting, etc. is the result of being alive and I know that results are important but sometimes being alive is enough. Believe me, I was caught with hipertension in the middle of a trip in a lovely historical city and what I most needed at a time is slow down, sitting whatever place I could and rest. For me it is terrible.
So, enjoy your health and your capatity of creating beautiful things, even if they aren't perfect!
I have missed you and your posts when I was far from blogsphere.

The Idaho Beauty said...

Margaret, Oh good - someone else finds ellipses challenging! When I took a Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain class, I was fascinated with this idea of left brain/right brain with the left brain being the side that thinks it knows it all and can often lead you astray with its interpretation of the info coming in through the eyes. It's so prone to jumping to conclusions. Bore that baby quick so it will go away and let the right brain interpret correctly because it doesn't have any preconceived notions. So when I think I've finally gotten something sketched correctly and put it up on the computer only to see it is still off, I get great delight in blaming my know it all left brain who must have snuck back to convince me all was ok. ;-)

Steady practice apparently is what gets us to the point where we stop doing the same wrong thing over and over. I definitely saw that happening with the cup handles. The first half dozen were always so off, I'd make the same wrong angling or too wide an opening and have to erase erase and erase some more until the left brain finally went off somewhere else. And then magically, I got a handle very nearly correct on the first try, and each after that have been relatively easy to get that initial shaping pretty close. So as much as we may not want to admit it, it really is the constant exposure and practice that gets us past some of these roadblocks. But who has the time? We'd rather be creating finished project! At least, that's always been my weakness!

The Idaho Beauty said...

Lucia, I've missed you! Sorry to hear you've been having some health issues too - it certainly does stand in the way of keeping up with creative endeavors, although being able to do something simple like sketch or paint can be very helpful as we try to right our bodies. So true that these simple acts of creation do indeed give us that proof of being alive, having a purpose and over time seeing improvement in our efforts. It's terrible when one is so ill as to not be able to do even simple things. I hope you are much better now and still pursuing your sumi painting. And now you've made me feel old - that you and some of my cups are the same age! Tee Hee

Yes, I know the allure of Facebook but I agree with you that it is a very different kind of communication and community from blogs, and I am happy you are back.