Four Things (but not a meme) +1

Comments on Comments Thanks to all of you for so many positive comments on my self-portrait series yesterday!! :::beam::: To respond to a few things - Amy asked about quilted self-portraits, so Amy, I added one for you if you want to pop back and take another look. (Anyone who saw the post later in the day will already have seen it.) Kristen (can't link, no blog!) asked about whether I couldn't solve the "looking pissed off thing" by drawing from a photograph and the answer is yes, I could. The un-pissed-off-looking fabric SP I added is done from a photograph. But there's a certain difference to the look you get from working from a photo and working from life - a difference beyond the pissed-off look, that is. Heh. Terry even mentioned that in her very perceptive comment. Plus if your goal is to improve your drawing skills, drawing from life is more difficult because your brain and hands have to be the ones to translate the 3-D image into 2-D instead of looking at a paper where the camera has already done that part of the work for you. So working "live" is really good practice. I don't think of working from a photo as "cheating" but I think of working from life as more advanced, if that makes sense. Alex asked if they were for school or fun. Let's see...The first two older ones (with the big glasses) were definitely for school. I'd have been 18 then, so it would have been either late in my first year of college or early in my second year. I'm not sure about the one drawn with marker. I'd still have been in school then, but that one is a small study in a sketchbook which makes me suspect I probably just did it as a practice thing. The next three were just because I wanted to. And the last one was drawn specifically for the SPT challenge post. Alex also asked what they say about me now. Hhhmmm...Well, I'm not sure how much I want to go into this here, but let's say that the two from around 1983 - 1986 or so...I can look back on what was going on in my life at the time and find it very significant now that those two are essentially "fantasy" self-portraits. They showed my features but didn't really show ME in the same way that any of the ones that came before or after did. Those two were about hiding, not revealing, yet that fact is, in itself, revealing, yes? Blogging 4 Books Bummer I SO wanted to play this month!! The book that will be the prize for the winner is one I've had on my Amazon wish list for weeks...maybe even months! But I just couldn't wrap my head around the theme of writing about an Ex. I tried. Really, I did. I tried ideas about the obvious thing of ex-boyfriends. I thought of non-romantic friends I've lost over the years. I mulled over possible ways to interpret "Ex" in an off-the-wall way, and where I might go with that. Nuttin'. Not one single idea that came to mind was worth the time it would have taken to type it out. This is the second month in a row where I haven't managed an entry. I am displeased with myself about that. Next month I don't care if the theme is "Rutabagas: The Forgotten Root Vegetable", I'm going to find SOMETHING to write about!!! Because I Haven't Inflicted a Quiz on You for at Least a Week Here's one I took ages ago and only just now found tucked away in my file of "things I'll get back to at some point before hell freezes over": Which Literature Classic Are You? J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings. You are entertaining and imaginative, creating whole new worlds around yourself. Well loved, you have a whole league of imitators, none of which is quite as profound as you are. Stories and songs give a spark of joy in the middle of your eternal battle with the forces of evil. Which literature classic are you? brought to you by Quizilla And Last (but hopefully not least): Daily Dose of Art "Raven Log" (see the shape of the bird?) This is yet another photo from my woodsy walk the other day - Photoshopped, obviously. I made it "grainy" because I wanted a sort of surreal quality to the scene. Somehow in the strange recesses of my mind, it seemed to me to fit the theme of quiz. No, I can't tell you why. I often don't understand my brain either. PS... Just in case you think you're lucky enough for me to have dropped my AustenObsession, I just HAVE to mention that the release date for the new-version Pride & Prejudice DVD has been set for the 28th of February. HOO-rah!