Sketching (and that nagging SORE THROAT)

Thursday night I took my first life drawing class.  I've been in a class that painted from real life but not something like this!  I will tell you as time drew near to go I was almost in the flight stage of just skipping it and losing the $20 but I knew I HAD to go.  I wanted to go.  I NEEDED to go.  I packed up my stuff and headed out to an old house in the south part of downtown.  Out of the car, up the steps and into a whole new world for me.  The first person I saw was a guy named Randy O. that I knew from another art group.  Nice guy. There was another much older guy who I was introduced to but immediately forgot his name.  In fact I barely remembered anyone's name because I was so nervous.  The lady whose art house this was popped around the corner and immediately welcomed me by name and got me all set up to begin.  There were I think 6 or 7 of us set up in a two room area and in the middle a lady, in a robe was getting all ready for us to draw.  I heard some mumbling in the front room about 3 minutes, 10 poses but it did not register in my brain and all of a sudden at exactly 6:30, the lady in the robe, dropped her robe and we were on.  I knew it was a nude model life drawing class but it is still a shock to be in mixed company and have that happen.  She posed and I started slowly to try and make some marks on my paper.  I guess 3 minutes had passed in that short time and I had barely made a mark on the paper when I heard a beep and she changed poses.  CRAP, I quickly shifted to the other corner of the paper and started again but was met with the beep I would imagine was 3 minutes.  Paper shuffling I changed paper and my determination to get more than a few marks on the paper.  I started drawing quick marks to just get the bare minimum of marks on the paper to look like the pose.  This continued for another 7 poses at 3 minutes each.  Every time she changed and I started another one I got better and better and faster and faster till the end of that part of the session I actually had forms on the paper.  Then we had 3 sessions of 10 minutes each.  There I got better again with a bit more time to fine tune the figure on paper.  Then we 2 sessions of 20 minutes and it was so much better but you know I felt like I was better at the mark making at the 3 minute times.  All in all I LOVED IT, absolutely LOVED IT!  I cannot wait to go next week.  I'll miss the week after that but I hope to make this my weekly drawing class.  It was such fun and a great drawing exercise.

The few days before the class I worked on these in my sketchbook/watercolor journal.

And this one at the studio, yes I got some time at my actual easel!

This sketch is from a photo I’ve loved forever. It’s me at the sink doing dishes for the first time as a wife (47 years ago) after cooking my first meal as a wife. I know, I know, little did I know what that meant at the time. Still I was blissfully happy here. It was also in our first apartment that we loved so much.

Now on to my body.  I am STILL battling this sore throat thing and it has really got me in my head with worry, to the point my blood pressure is up.  All kinds of things are going through my head, throat cancer, leukemia (bloody noses-2), who knows, but I am DAMN TIRED OF HURTING!  Every night is a struggle to swallow because of the pain.  My doctor last week said lets see how it goes but over the weekend I decided I'm done with this pain.  Yes it is a tad better but not enough to ignore it.  My glands a swollen a bit too and there is sinus drainage.  I think I still have a sinus infection and unfortunately think I NEED another antibiotic and maybe a steroid, but who am I, not a doctor!  But I know my body and I need something.  It has been since June 8 that I have been sick and fighting off something.  It is time to get serious and stop the pain.