blah post (mostly art pics) but also SALSA FESTIVAL - HERE I COME! :D
So I don't really feel like posting much, since I'm tired as all fuck - that's actually because a lot of stuff has happened, but like I said - don't feel like posting it all XD So this will be mostly about my design prep program, and little bits of life that come to me as I write.
Wednesday!Sketching course was nudes - we knew this in advance. We were told very sternly to arrive on time (4PM) so that the girl modelling for us wouldn't get a draft every time someone entered the classroom. So most of us arrived between 3:50 and 4:20 - our teacher wisely used the first half hour of the class to give us some basic information and technique on nude sketches, so that she'd be sure we were all there and the model could come in.
And then the model stepped in - a guy.
TALK ABOUT EMBARRASSING. As "artists" we tried not to be too affected by this, but we'd (I'd, at least!) mentally prepared myself to draw a woman, which I'd obviously be more comfortable with. I've done nude sketches twice in my life (both times during high-school) and I'm a woman myself, so a woman's body doesn't affect me at all and I'm entirely comfortable seeing it and drawing it. But a man...
As you know from my post 'The Legendary Ex' , I haven't gotten very far with men. I haven't even really seen a man's penis, except for maybe a few R-rated films and the odd porn picture that I might stumble accross on the internet. That one time with my ex, I was too nervous to even try to go down on him, so I only ever felt his dick, didn't actually see it.
And there I am, sat there on the floor of the studio (getting charcoal smudges on my new tan pants in the process >< ) and I'm faced with a naked guy. First pose was full frontal and MAN. Like I said - I haven't actually seen many penises in my life. But this guy's? I think it was kinda small XDDDDDDD
(I don't know if I should tag this as 'lol' or as 'omg' or 'wtf' or possibly even 'ewww')
So again - I don't have much to compare to. And of course the guy wasn't erect. But still. EMBARRASSING - on his behalf! But who cares, if he was confident enough to pose for a bunch of us, then who am I to talk, or to question, or whatever XD I didn't draw his actual package anyway.
After a few charcoal sketches, I started to get into it. I'm not very good with charcoal, because it's messy and I like to keep my pages clean - other people fill the whole page with charcoal and it usually turns out very nice for them - but it's hard for me to get past the 'dirty' phase. So, my charcoal sketches are usually pretty unimpressive.
Those were fast, 4-5-minute poses. But then we moved on to 20-minute poses and I switched to pencil, and suddenly I liked my sketches a lot more.
Also, my homework assignment for the course turned out pretty well - clear plastic sheet painted with black ink, then an image scratched out.
Thursday!6B was... meh. We submitted our homework assignment, which was a fabric collage self-portrait, and I wasn't so pleased with mine, and everyone else's were pretty neat. Everyone still liked mine, as did the teacher, but it was sort of... blah. And the lesson itself was on Fashion and Jewelry Design, which I'm not so into. I mean, I like fashion as a consumer (lol, who doesn't love to shop?? :P ) but not as a designer. Same for jewelry - I like to do it as a hobby but not as a job. Our homework assignment is to make a ready-made sculpture on the subject of 'absurd.' Lol, this one's gonna be hard.
Jumping back to Tuesday!Salsa - I went early and did a sweep of the nearby mall. There was a discount on pants and skirts at one of the shops I like, but nothing there caught my eye. I'd wanted a pair of tan trousers, either long (skinny) or knee-length because it's a really useful colour, very light and summery. I did spot a very casual dress in another shop, and it wasn't even very expensive, but I'll have a birthday discount later this month so I'm gonna wait on that one dress :)
Then I sat down for coffee with a girl from salsa which I've become pretty close with lately - we've been chatting on FB and comparing moves at the salsa parties. After coffee she said she wanted to buy a pair of pants at Zara. She already had them in one colour and wanted them in navy too. She showed me the pants, and they had them in tan, too! So I tried them on and fuck but they look awesome. And they were very inexpensive so I spent all of 2 minutes thinking whether or not to get them :) So yay, new pants!
This girl and I are signing up for the big Salsa Festival in Eilat in September together :D It's once a year, every September, and salsa clubs and individual people from all over the country come. It takes place in Eilat, which is the southernmost city in Israel. Eilat is sort of like ... Miami Beach or LA (it is in fact LA's sister city!) Very summer- and beach-oriented. HUGE tourist population, and one of the biggest port cities in the country. There is hardly a single person who lives in Israel and has not been to Eilat. Lots of people go there by car or bus - the biggest bus company does almost hourly rides from Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem, costing something like 200NIS (vaguely $60 or £30) for a 2-way ride - and it's also not too expensive to get there by plane. The road there is one of the most dangerous roads in the country, tons of really horrific accidents happen there, and it's also a 5-6 hour ride, so a lot of people prefer the 1-hour plane journey. But the bus is more accessible to most people.
So the salsa festival is a 3-day party basically, at a 5-star delux hotel right outside Eilat (meaning, you'd have to get a car/taxi to get into Eilat itself, but still) and includes salsa parties and workshops and lessons, plus all the things regularly seen in a luxury hotel - 5 meals, popsicles, alcohol, pools, hot-tubs, spa treatments, billiards, karaoke - the works. I didn't have the confidence to go last year (nor the finances) because I'd only been dancing for half a year - but by September this year, it'll be a year and a half of dancing and I feel confident enough :)
The cost is 950NIS plus 150NIS for the bus ride - altogether 1,100NIS, which is less than one month's paycheck for me :) Plus, there's a 4-month payment plan, which is goo XD However, my credit card payments have started equalling my paychecks in the past few months... somehow I've been spending A LOT OF MONEY lately. Bah. But who cares! I'm not in danger of overdraft or something - and my parents are always there to help me out in a jam if I need it.
So... I've got exactly four months to get into shape, get bathing-suit ready, brown up a bit so I don't look like a ghost, and tighten my dance moves :)
Oh, I also have to find 2 other girls for our room XD
SALSA FESTIVAL - HERE I COME!! :D
Hehe... this post ended up being pretty damn happy :)
Wednesday!Sketching course was nudes - we knew this in advance. We were told very sternly to arrive on time (4PM) so that the girl modelling for us wouldn't get a draft every time someone entered the classroom. So most of us arrived between 3:50 and 4:20 - our teacher wisely used the first half hour of the class to give us some basic information and technique on nude sketches, so that she'd be sure we were all there and the model could come in.
And then the model stepped in - a guy.
TALK ABOUT EMBARRASSING. As "artists" we tried not to be too affected by this, but we'd (I'd, at least!) mentally prepared myself to draw a woman, which I'd obviously be more comfortable with. I've done nude sketches twice in my life (both times during high-school) and I'm a woman myself, so a woman's body doesn't affect me at all and I'm entirely comfortable seeing it and drawing it. But a man...
As you know from my post 'The Legendary Ex' , I haven't gotten very far with men. I haven't even really seen a man's penis, except for maybe a few R-rated films and the odd porn picture that I might stumble accross on the internet. That one time with my ex, I was too nervous to even try to go down on him, so I only ever felt his dick, didn't actually see it.
And there I am, sat there on the floor of the studio (getting charcoal smudges on my new tan pants in the process >< ) and I'm faced with a naked guy. First pose was full frontal and MAN. Like I said - I haven't actually seen many penises in my life. But this guy's? I think it was kinda small XDDDDDDD
(I don't know if I should tag this as 'lol' or as 'omg' or 'wtf' or possibly even 'ewww')
So again - I don't have much to compare to. And of course the guy wasn't erect. But still. EMBARRASSING - on his behalf! But who cares, if he was confident enough to pose for a bunch of us, then who am I to talk, or to question, or whatever XD I didn't draw his actual package anyway.
After a few charcoal sketches, I started to get into it. I'm not very good with charcoal, because it's messy and I like to keep my pages clean - other people fill the whole page with charcoal and it usually turns out very nice for them - but it's hard for me to get past the 'dirty' phase. So, my charcoal sketches are usually pretty unimpressive.
Those were fast, 4-5-minute poses. But then we moved on to 20-minute poses and I switched to pencil, and suddenly I liked my sketches a lot more.
Also, my homework assignment for the course turned out pretty well - clear plastic sheet painted with black ink, then an image scratched out.
Thursday!6B was... meh. We submitted our homework assignment, which was a fabric collage self-portrait, and I wasn't so pleased with mine, and everyone else's were pretty neat. Everyone still liked mine, as did the teacher, but it was sort of... blah. And the lesson itself was on Fashion and Jewelry Design, which I'm not so into. I mean, I like fashion as a consumer (lol, who doesn't love to shop?? :P ) but not as a designer. Same for jewelry - I like to do it as a hobby but not as a job. Our homework assignment is to make a ready-made sculpture on the subject of 'absurd.' Lol, this one's gonna be hard.
Jumping back to Tuesday!Salsa - I went early and did a sweep of the nearby mall. There was a discount on pants and skirts at one of the shops I like, but nothing there caught my eye. I'd wanted a pair of tan trousers, either long (skinny) or knee-length because it's a really useful colour, very light and summery. I did spot a very casual dress in another shop, and it wasn't even very expensive, but I'll have a birthday discount later this month so I'm gonna wait on that one dress :)
Then I sat down for coffee with a girl from salsa which I've become pretty close with lately - we've been chatting on FB and comparing moves at the salsa parties. After coffee she said she wanted to buy a pair of pants at Zara. She already had them in one colour and wanted them in navy too. She showed me the pants, and they had them in tan, too! So I tried them on and fuck but they look awesome. And they were very inexpensive so I spent all of 2 minutes thinking whether or not to get them :) So yay, new pants!
This girl and I are signing up for the big Salsa Festival in Eilat in September together :D It's once a year, every September, and salsa clubs and individual people from all over the country come. It takes place in Eilat, which is the southernmost city in Israel. Eilat is sort of like ... Miami Beach or LA (it is in fact LA's sister city!) Very summer- and beach-oriented. HUGE tourist population, and one of the biggest port cities in the country. There is hardly a single person who lives in Israel and has not been to Eilat. Lots of people go there by car or bus - the biggest bus company does almost hourly rides from Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem, costing something like 200NIS (vaguely $60 or £30) for a 2-way ride - and it's also not too expensive to get there by plane. The road there is one of the most dangerous roads in the country, tons of really horrific accidents happen there, and it's also a 5-6 hour ride, so a lot of people prefer the 1-hour plane journey. But the bus is more accessible to most people.
So the salsa festival is a 3-day party basically, at a 5-star delux hotel right outside Eilat (meaning, you'd have to get a car/taxi to get into Eilat itself, but still) and includes salsa parties and workshops and lessons, plus all the things regularly seen in a luxury hotel - 5 meals, popsicles, alcohol, pools, hot-tubs, spa treatments, billiards, karaoke - the works. I didn't have the confidence to go last year (nor the finances) because I'd only been dancing for half a year - but by September this year, it'll be a year and a half of dancing and I feel confident enough :)
The cost is 950NIS plus 150NIS for the bus ride - altogether 1,100NIS, which is less than one month's paycheck for me :) Plus, there's a 4-month payment plan, which is goo XD However, my credit card payments have started equalling my paychecks in the past few months... somehow I've been spending A LOT OF MONEY lately. Bah. But who cares! I'm not in danger of overdraft or something - and my parents are always there to help me out in a jam if I need it.
So... I've got exactly four months to get into shape, get bathing-suit ready, brown up a bit so I don't look like a ghost, and tighten my dance moves :)
Oh, I also have to find 2 other girls for our room XD
SALSA FESTIVAL - HERE I COME!! :D
Hehe... this post ended up being pretty damn happy :)