Carrasco Studio: School

I amped up my cuteness factor with this lawn ornament I did for my cousin Maggie's sheep soiree auction. I offered to paint the form made of rough pressed wood and decided it had to be done ala Jackson Pollack. Notice this lamb has a talking mustache.

And here is Maggie's event. She trains sheep dogs and is an animal whisperer. She is the first person who has ever told me that sheep intelligence exists on a special sheep plane. I was humbled.

Do come to the event if you can. After the pen and the sheep shipment (sheep have been brought in from Arizona so Maggie's sheep won't get too tired) are paid for, all the proceeds go to a special projects foundation for Vashon Island teachers.

So far, I'm bringing 6 of my peeps to come enjoy the event, hang out with dogs and sheep and have a picnic on the meadow. It's supposed to be nice. Yawl come. Baaaaa.

Interior by Vilhem Hammershoei 1905

...a stone, a leaf, an unfound door: of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces.....O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again. Thomas Wolfe....Look Homeward Angel.

In my first semester of college, I was placed in a class where my job was To Read Books. I was in bliss. I was so low in my math skills that I barely qualified for bonehead math, but I was able to sidle into a higher level English class where all I had to do was read books and write about what I read. One of these books was Thomas Wolfe's, "Look Homeward Angel", and it was perfect for an 18 year old in love with literature. I would clutch the book under my arm to class, to dinner (if I could get away with it...formal dinners were expected even in the dorms at that time) and on my way back from the library in the evening. My campus was snowbound and cold in the winter, and I would slip and fall, and the book would skitter across the ice and stop in a snowbank. I loved the book, still have the tattered copy with me, and its forward has haunted me ever since.

That metaphor of the open door, opening upon door upon door..... An enfilade into more mysteries and experience. Like Thomas Wolfe's book, like art, like drawing, .... a journey far too prolix and more than a little mad.

1 Discuss Chapter 7....Pass out Temple Grande page on the conflict between verbal and visual information.

2. Show Tony Ryder’s method of blocking in.... .Relationships Basic unit...figure...often the length and width of the head.

3. Basic Unit.....review. pg. 126.. the correct Basic unit controls the rest of your drawing....Remember Tony Ryder......boat...vertical unit, for me, is easier....use the horizontal and vertical of paper format to check angles. Draw angles of Hopper painting...each shape...start with largest and get smaller and smaller.

Choose the main vertical as your basic unit. What direction should you have in your format? No shading, just contour ....can use ruler if you like.

5. Drawing a stepladder. Hold up viewfinder so the stepladder touches at least three edges of the viewfinder. Keep the viewfinder in the same position and close one eye. Focus on negative spaces around stepladder....first draw negative spaces around viewfinder. Check the angles and lengths with a basic unit and the verticals and horizontals of the paper format. Then start on the interior negative spaces....again, check the angles and lengths.

Assignment...Draw the Ballerina....negative space.......shared edges between the positive and negative.. Double check angles and curves with horizontal and vertical edges of the paper. Come up with your definition of art....Read chapter 8

.......And watch for negative and positive confusions.....