Update

Hey, hey, hey, this is my sixtieth post. O_o

Updates! Yes. On art lessons. Well, yesterday, like the day before, I got up at 6:45, 7:00 (I don't know why we got up two hours before we were supposed to be there. O_o) And got ready and everything. Once we got there, the dogs and one of the cats (the 21 year old one that acts like its just older than a kitten) came to greet me warmly. After a long hello to them that consisted of petting their fur and plopping a kiss on each of their heads, I stood and took my Bristol paper sketchbook and opened to my horse.

The others were already there. Okay, so an introduction:

The oldest guy there was a wood-carver and painter, and he was from Iowa and EXTREMELY nice. :) He paints in acrylics on wood, and in my opinion, does very well... >_> His name is Kent.

Then there's Terry, who looks more like a run-down sort of guy, plain button-up shirt, jeans, scraggly beard--that sort of thing. He's pretty talented as well and finished a face today.

Lee Hammond you already know, and she sat beside me.

Tim, a boy of about maybe sixteen or seventeen, older than me, sat beside me on the other side. He'd been there the year before, and had just been in Australia and a motley group of other places. He lives four states over, so it was a long flight because they had to avoid where the floodwaters were...

Then, there was a man who was already an extremely good artist when he came in and only needed some teaching in colored pencil and blending. He did really well... O_O He seemed real distant when I first met him, sort of like he didn't like being around too many people, but later he told Lee that if he seemed that way, he had a mild case of autism. After that, he seemed more open, and learned more and did excellently. But here's the catch--his name. His name was Ry. RY!! XD Spelled that way, too. :)

Then there was--oh, wait, me. :)

So this morning I finished the mane on my horse and touched it up, signed it, and sprayed it. Lee took it outside and sprayed it for me. Now I have a horse that can be framed!! Here it is (and yes, I got a picture--from my dad's iPhone):

It's actually a bit darker on that neck muscle, but the light I used to work with was turned on, so it glared a bit right there. DOESN'T IT LOOK A LOT BETTER THAN USUAL?!

So yeah. There's my horsey! Leauphaun provided the beautiful picture I worked from. We put it on the projector to do it, traced the dark lines and everything (harder than you think) and then took it off to do the shading. I didn't free-hand it because I wanted a new experience, and it made the picture bigger for me, so I used that and it worked pretty well, though its almost like free-handing because it takes some skill, and when you're working the shading from the photo, there's a lot you have to fix and tweak. Its not a perfect process, but it turned out pretty well! :D

The second day I didn't work much on it, because that day was mostly demonstrations. She did more than one colored pencil demonstration, a painting demonstration, and still worked on her own art. LEE HAMMOND IS AMAZING.

The reason why she is so effective is because she doesn't schedule what she'll do during the week of the art lessons before it starts because she wants to do things that everybody wants to do. She works with each of us on whatever project we are doing--she lets us do it, but then helps us fix mistakes and work on things. She is really nice, and talkative.

She likes telling stories... there are all kinds. O_o Yesterday she looked up, on her computer, people who had gotten 'face lifts' and plastic surgery. She was DISGUSTED. People who'd gotten those things now were falling apart and were no longer even good-looking. They messed up their profile. People who used to be pretty and handsome were now ugly... she is very passionate about such things. She hates it when people mess themselves up like that. I mean, she's in her sixties or older, and she looks like she's thirty and only wears make-up!

So, she's an interesting conversationalist. :) Very interesting, and treats everyone like family. We all squeeze into one or two cars and go to lunch together, everyone paying for their own. I love it. She's nice and helps whenever someone calls, and her dogs are always there in the studio to greet you and beg to be stroked.

Third day is now over! Today I finished the horse above, and now I'm working on one of Moby and nearly finished it today. Tomorrow all I have is the neck fur and the shadow--its just a picture of his head when he's sleeping. Sweet dog, and it even looks like him! That's a first. ;) But its coming along real well. :D No demos today.

Tomorrow she's promised crayon demos! We each give our opinion on what we want demonstrated. :) And what's more, she's doing professional pictures with crayola. EPIC! She did a realistic tiger (looks like a painting or pastel from afar) and it is really good. Can't wait for that... that's one medium that isn't expensive at all.

Colored pencils that are good and work correctly for art are going up to a dollar something EACH! Terry had a twenty-four pack that cost him forty dollars, and Tim, who's working on a colored pencil drawing, bought a seventy-five pack thingy. It was EXPENSIVE. He bought it from Lee, so it didn't cost as much as it might've in a store.

I sort of want to try colored pencil, but its so expensive...

Tim is nearly finished with his piece, and its looking really good. Its a butterfly on a flower (top view) with leaves and stems in the background and some sky. Its really quite beautiful, and he's getting close to maybe two thirds done, or three fourths of the way...

So, that's about it! Moby shall be finished by maybe tomorrow, and I hope you like the horse. THANK YOU LEAUPHAUN FOR THE PICTURES!!!

--Vrenith