The Journal of Rhiannon Black

Our model didn't show up a few weeks ago so Dan had us exchange portraits. Did an underpainting of Nick in umber. It was pretty good. Meant to get a picture of it but left the camera (and even the dumb phone) in the car. Oops. Nick worked on my portrait last Tuesday (there are problems, how do I count the ways). I worked again on Nick's portrait on Thursday. Showed it to Stacy this morning. "Who is that?" she asked. "Nick." "Yeah, I know Nick and you captured him. The nose is too long though." She's being kind, there's more that needs to be worked on than that, but it's not a bad start. Best start I've done, I think. I took my time with drawing/tone.

Cold weather really does slow the drying of paint.

I think Dan's supposed to be bad from Memphis tomorrow (I think it was Memphis). And I need to gesso a panel before class. And I need to find out about odorless mineral spirits and open containers during class. Because I thought it was an absolute no-no. I can't find it on the school's website and it should be there.

I did not get my alternate persona fleshed out and my research finished (really, I've only done preliminary research, wikipedia is my friend, but it shouldn't be my [almost] only friend) so no me hanging out teaching the masses at Hoggetowne this year. Next year. I promise. Next year. At least I have a name. I think.

The day when a giant bunny brings baskets of dyed, hardboiled eggs and various candies cradled in colorful artificial grass in honor of the resurrected Christ.

My culture, but not my religion. Do I have a religion?

Diane and I are trading portraits. She started mine Tuesday last, worked some more on Thursday and after pondering, emailed me about the possibility of getting together Friday. She's been feeling selfish because I've been sitting and she's been painting. That will change, I hope, now that I get to work on my portrait. I got a start of it on Friday, did a silverpoint underdrawing and then an umber underpainting, very basic, not a full grisaille underpainting. So far, I like it.

Patricia (she's taking Painting I and II), happened upon us when we first started on Tuesday and said, oh, good. When you talked about trading last week I wanted to ask if I could get in on it but yada yada. Anyway, we both said, no problem and she set up an easel as well. On Thursday, about halfway through the "pose," Aubrey came in and said, damn, I didn't know you were doing this. Mind if I sketch you? Bwahaha, turnabout's fair play.

Next time, I'll bring a pillow.

Diane, a few minutes into her pose, said wow this is a hard chair. I mentioned the pillow idea, but that we'd have to bring it with us, not leave it, because too many things go walkabout.

We're talking about starting up a Friday portrait get together. The studio is always open Fridays, no classes ever scheduled for it, and it will be air conditioned through the summer.

I also mentioned my long-ago idea of sketching various rehearsals of dancers, actors, singers at Santa Fe and Diane is enthused. I'll bring it up to the others this week. And talk to Alora, again. There's also the community theatre and various dance places around town...

Tomorrow the world, eh?

Class remains very frustrating. I am resolved, though, to slow down, sketch out the pose more carefully, underpaint with umber and then stop the first night. The umber will dry (enough at least) not to muddy the colors the next night. I can spend the rest of the first night mixing colors. I can even have a test panel to play with.

I need to work on some stuff tonight and tomorrow to take in Monday morning for call for entries. I'll also have a cuff or two, the fold formed sterling things.

Quote of the day: Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. (Confucius)

It's cold up in Big Brotherland but not as bad as it could be. Or, perhaps, it's more correct to say, not as snowy as it could be. The worst of the storm stayed south of them.

Um, Painting has been frustrating. I've been feeling like I want to cry, much of the time. But we chatted, a bunch of us, including Dan, post class on Thursday and he said something about the Critic. And I remembered how I had a deal with my Inner Critic about singing, how it had worked quite admirably. So, I've turned to my Inner Critic, once more, and said, you, take this legal pad and pen, and you know the drill, no comments while I'm working.

Class should be less angsty, sturm and drangy from now on.

( The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away... )

Left the house later than I like but as we're already six weeks into term, parking wasn't that bad. I didn't get a space as close as I like but it was certainly better than I was expecting.

And then I noticed the white billows gushing from under the hood of the Cherry Red. Oh noes, says I. After a bit of debate, and having called Kathy at Performance Tran, I decided to go to my classes and have the car towed in the afternoon. There are no doubt dozens of drivers not cursing my name. I hadn't even thought about what a mess that parking lot is in the a.m.

Radiator hose. That's all. Expensive enough but not what it could be.

My painting isn't too putrid.

The operative word is still putrid.

And I can't get the smell of oil paint off my hands.

There are four (maybe more) tomatos on the one plant. They're little and green and have a bunch of growing to do but they're mine all mine.

Had midterm on Wednesday with Dan. Our model didn't show up, and that was annoying. I'm so behind on homework but he's not tres concerned about that. And there's still two weeks to go in term. I could easily get it finished. I just need to settle in and do it.

Back to midterm. The same thing happened Spring term. Sort of. Then I actually looked through my drawing pad more. But looking through with Dan I was struck by how good my line drawings are (and conversely how putrid my charcoal/tonal things are).

So I am resolved. I'm going to be a bit of a rebel. I'm going to slow down. I'm going to stop trying to please him as much. I might throw out the damned vine charcoal. That stuff is just annoying. Okay, maybe I'll do a bit of a gesture with it, just to make sure I like my drawing placement. Then I'm going straight to the hard, yeah, you heard me, the hard charcoal pencil and I will do a decent sketch of the figure. I will not dither around on it, then again, I will not jump in to doing the toning right off. I will not block in the shadows so quickly. And when I have a decent sketch, I will start blocking in shadows, but I will not lose my underdrawing to it. I don't know how I'm going to do this. I wonder about using the powdered charcoal, trying to do something with that.

Trouble is, he wants us to block in the shadow mass all at once and then pull off the extra charcoal, lighten areas as needed. But making the shadow mass a single value to start with obliterates the underlying sketch and I will not get it back. And then I struggle to get the shadow values separated. The darkest dark is, most likely, going to be on the body, the cast shadow behind is going to be lighter, at least a nine to the body's ten. I'm thinking of bringing the shadow to the underdrawing's outline, using hatching, and then rubbing the hell out of it.

Have a number of different papers, some white Rives, but also some colored, as well as some Canson mi-teinte. And another gessobord. I'm going to ask if I can do my self portrait on the gessobord. I'm thinking of throwing in my first experiments with color, some gouache, or pastel, or watercolor. Can't hurt to ask.

Have started some manure tea. Yum. Also planted, finally, the last tomato plant and the eggplant. I have one little white turmeric. The other bits of rhizome did not sprout anything. We've had little bits of rain chez moi but not enough to keep the plants going, the water-loving ones anyone. I've had to water the basils and mints a couple times.

I'm going to attempt successive plantings of lettuce seeds and hope to harvest enough for the occasional small salad once in a while. Black seeded simpson is supposed to be especially successful for Florida, even further south than Gainesville.

Quote of the day: Why, heartless, foolish world, why did you give the cat a necklace? Now a poor defenseless mouse is dead and the king of the cats has forgotten how to sit at the table and use a knife and fork. And all because you gave a cat a necklace. (If You Give a Cat a Necklace (Mmm… Marginalia #30), Got Medieval, Carl Pyrdum)

I can't believe term is over. I drove on to campus yesterday afternoon and I was suddenly struck with a sense of...something...nostalgia...angst. It was just yesterday, okay, I guess now it was just the day before yesterday (since it is now today and I'm writing about yesterday and even I'm getting confused) and it was the beginning of term and I was buying my textbooks for Drawing II (where I was going to learn to draw and set the art world on fire) and picking up my picture I.D. (The camera did not break.)

( Mood-setting music... )

Quote of the day: As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney,
as your French crown for your taffeta punk, as Tib's
rush for Tom's forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove
Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his
hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding queen
to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the
friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his skin. (All's Well That Ends Well, William Shakespeare)

Arrgh! Toned paper again today. We did a "long" pose (class period is only an hour and forty minutes total and we have set up and break down/clean up to figure in so long is a relative thing. Anyway, arrgh arrgh arrgh! And again I say arrgh.

I was doing okay, but my figure was a bit small, probably still is, even though I "erased" what I had and worked a bigger figure. Arrgh! That really says it all.

He's going to have Aubrey resume the same pose on Thursday and we'll continue. I'm going to concentrate on getting the shadows to break properly. That will make a big difference in my outcome.

I feel like it's one step forward and three steps back.

And those damned seated poses, they're hard. Oh, hell, it's all hard.

I actually got over to Fed-Ex, um, yesterday, oops, and finally got the latest homework downloads (latest as of Thursday last, oops) run out and worked on the one, a standing female. Got pretty far with it actually. The drawings are both by Prud'hon.

We're supposed to work on the other one for this Thursday. We'll have a self portrait to work on over the weekend but he hasn't given us instructions on it and he said, quite definitely, to hold off until he does.

He complimented me, my work in general, muchly when we met in the corridor post class. I said thanks but that it was so frustrating and he said, that's art. It's always frustrating. Couldn't agree more. Arrgh!

I never spend any time here. Was just searching through communities and there aren't many that interest me (short search but of pertinent categories, pertinent to me that is). Or there are communities but never updated but updated more than six months ago.

Of course, they do say, them's that say it, that slow growth is good growth.

Haven't heard from Bob yet today and never heard from him yesterday. I wonder what that means. He should have known yesterday evening something about his Odyssey and when it could be repaired, if it had already been repaired and so on. So what does it means? Does it mean that I'll get a phone call on Friday, the three of them back in Philly and oh gee whiz what could we do after all (and seeing as you're actually on our way back home and it wouldn't be out of our way to stop for an hour and see you). But really, love you lots.

I guess I am cynical and bitter.

But then I know my family and their talk talk talk.

Made a couple of neat bracelets last night. Took the one chased wedge t-fold I made last term and formed it on the horn of the anvil and wasn't that fun? I plan to attach it to something. And I plan to make more. And I need to take pictures.

Quote of the day: Harry struggled to keep his voice steady, even as he felt as if his insides had turned to ice. “I know you. You’re Lord Volauvent.”

“Yes! I am the one who killed your parents. I am He Who – Wait. What did you call me?” Voldemort’s eyes narrowed. (Harry's New Home, kbinnz)



I played with the studio in a box last night when I was in the studio. I have a lot to learn about photographing my stuff. At least I've made a start. If anyone else ever shows up on Sundays, I can also offer to take pictures of their stuff. It will give me loads more practice and will cause me to find different solutions than those that might work for my stuff.