timpiotr

NOTE: There won't be any figure drawing this week, as it's a Holiday week.

Yesterday was Wednesday, which means more figure drawing! Next week might be our last time in the space we use for December, as the owner will be traveling during that time. So we are already looking for a new space. Last night we had the largest group so far, 12-13 people. So it would be great to try and keep this going, since we are building a very nice group of people.

My friend Marc, encouraged me to try sketching a different way, to break out of my mold and habits, and push myself. Namely, to not be so scribbly with my lines, but to draw the shape in one line. First, you get more drawing in, since you aren't spending all this time on line.

It's something I'm working towards, not belaboring the work. I'm not looking for perfection mind you. But I do want to be able to draw what I want, and not overwork it. To that effect, I'm going to apply some advice I tell people who ask me, how do you draw? You practice. Just like you learned to write letters and numbers, drawing is similar. You must practice. You must train your hand to do what you want it to. That's the simplisty of it, I think. Yes there are a lot of other factors, but I honestly think that is the basic concept.

This morning I wavered back and forth between going to the gym and doing cardio there, or taking advantage of one the last few good weather days, and go biking along the river. I'm glad that I took the river, because I might not have come along this:

A 20 foot area of the beach had a collection of these rock stacks. I had passed someone farther up, that I first thought was collecting rocks from the banks of the river. I realized that she was in fact, stacking the rocks. I stopped and took several pictures with my iPhone, hoping the came out. I continued on my way, and if she was still there on my way back, I was going to talk to her.

She was still there, stacking rocks. I introduced myself and she told me her name was Bridget Polk.

I talked to her about what she was doing, and why. It started about a month ago, though the idea had been around for a while. A friend had shown her an artist in Sausalito, who stacked rocks as a form of art. Her friend said she probably couldn't do it, which Bridget took as a challenge to prove she could.

She walks along the river for exercise. Her reward, instead of pancakes, is to stack rocks after wards. The area of rocks I saw, she said she has stacked on Sunday, and was surprised to come back today (Tuesday) and see them still standing, and in fact, other people had come along and added to what she had done.

Bridget finds stacking the rocks fun and a good form of mediation for her. She also feels she has a knack for it, and I agreed, as the stacks she makes don't look like she picks the easy way to stack them, often with the widest end standing high up in the air, balanced on the point. Her only tools are a sense of balance, and the rubber gloves, with metal tips inside so as to prevent being hurt if a rock falls. She found that out the hard way, when she thought a rock was balanced, turned and the rock fell on her finger.

Her work as drawn attention from people passing by, and several photographers have come and taken pictures of her and her work. She says she has come and seen people talking about her work. And while tempted to say "I did that!" she hasn't, and instead just listens to what they say, or watches as they add their own touches to the stacks.

At first the idea of other people contributing to what she did, seemed odd, and a fellow stacker (He focuses on driftwood) said that he doesn't mind if others add to what he did, or knocks them down. Once she saw how people reacted to them, and how it inspired them to try themselves, to contribute rather then knock down, she understood why he would feel that way, and embraces the idea that once she is done, what happens to the stacks, happens.

If you live in New York, and want to try and see these, I found her working along the Greenway, between 125 and 115 street area.

Here are more pictures I took of her rock stacks.

Here is a link to more pictures of her rockstacking.

Besides rocks, she works with balloons, and has also started working in wood. Which you can check out on her site.

Last night was a very good night for drawing, at my weekly figure drawing group. I'm really happy with the progress I'm making. I would like to increase the number of times a week I go to a figure drawing group, and I've found several others that I'm going to start checking out. It helps when you have a good model, and Shawna (I think that's her name) was great. She does very good poses, she brought props, such as little crystal globes, scarfs and fun hats. And she does something with puppets, I will have to find out what, and if she does puppet shows.
 

So, here is another page of colored comics. Now, while I like this, I do feel it's not as tight as the other page, and I think it has to do with to much going on. So I'm going to try a few things in the way of experimenting, to see if Ican make a more unified page.