Drawing Vault: No. 3 Link on Google Front Page

I just have to record this day. The link for my blog has now risen to No. 3 on the Google Front Page. It is a tiny blog and the words-Drawing Vault-are hardly typed in by millions of people, but watching how these links slip backwards and forwards from the front page to the second, almost overnight in some cases, makes this a good moment. Yay, back on the front page. Pray for light for me for this weekend so I can draw. I promise to put some sketches up soon - I promise!

And, I can't WAIT.

Moved up one spot on Google!

Sorry to be so boring, but this blog is No. 4 today (up from No. 5 yesterday) for the keywords, "Drawing Vault". The other blog Painting Vault is still at No. 7. Now off to paint an onion.

The results of my first attempt at painting an onion (Phase 1 only) are over at my other blog: file://paintingvault.blogspot.com/.

My Blog is No. 5 on Google Front Page Today

Over on my other blog, Drawing Vault, I have just written a post about how it is on the Google front page at No. 7, and hey, then checked to see how Drawing Vault was doing and it is No. 5!

These results are really because I am going into my blog every day and checking to see if anyone is reading it. Well, they are coming in slowly and due to a life drawing sketch, both on this blog and the painting blog, I have picked up readers from all over the world. Hello Boys! Sorry, that was presumptious of me; a lot of women like the dynamism of that sketch. I proudly show below the photos of my No. 5 spot and the visuals that have brought up this rating. I shall have to get more drawings going on this blog similar to this life class sketch, but in the interim, I am forgiving myself for a pat on the back! I shall try and post a sketch tomorrow on the Drawing Vault.

No. 5

In Situ

List of Ataliers or Schools that teach Academic or Classical Realism

In my search to become a super draughtswoman, I have trawled the internet to find a really good academic school where one can learn, and I mean really learn deeply, how to draw like the Masters, I found a phenomenal website called Art Renewal. The address is artrenewal.org. It is a huge website, a bit slow, but who cares. I found the page with their approved Ataliers all round the world, so if anyone stumbles across my blog looking for a place to learn, just click on this link or type it into your web browser and you will land on a page with a list of the best studios and art schools in the world. http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/atelier_list.asp.

I am sure they won't mind my putting this link of theirs on my humble blog. It might help a prospective Master of the future!

I have clicked on most of them and I am completely in awe that there are so many of them. It took me hours to get through the list and it was the most superb entertainment I have had in a long time. I had no idea that the demand for training in classical or academic realism was so huge. I hope to go to one of them in Italy. Raising funds for this won't be easy.

Drawing Christmas Baubles

I have just bought some mundane objects to draw...yes, these are the items in question. Christmas baubles and it's only September. No statuary here for a realist challenge, just orbs, shiny orbs, which are well nigh impossible to render, but try I shall. I intended for the Drawing Vault to have a real vault of drawings to catalogue my progress, but with so little time, and so few opportunities to get into the studio, I am having a rebellion all of my own. Who on earth would choose such items? Well, yes, me, but why? They are beautiful in real life to be sure, but they are also difficult objects to draw. I know this because eggs are notoriously difficult to render in paint and nearly as difficult in pencil, but this should be a lot of fun. Once I have had a few tries, I will be painting them in as many styles as I need to investigate everything about them, and I will post them over on the Painting Vault.

I am having a lot of thoughts about drawing, but this one has no real romance in it for me, except the technical challenge. I love the objects and their colours, but they are so industrial and so prolific, I just wonder if I will be able to sustain the project through to its end.

Searching for Objects to Draw

I can't find models, subjects, or objects to draw right now. Nothing will do except some really wonderful statuary. Ancient, un-fresh, time-worn, and with a patina that is almost impossible to recreate on paper or canvas. Mind-blowing beauty is what I am referring to here. I can't stop thinking about where I could find a Roman or Greek head, a soldier warrior maybe, or some great hero of the past, but outside museums, they don't exist, and I want to take one into my home to practice my drawing. Yes, pretty crazy and obsessive I know but these thoughts won't go away and they are pretty well darn near unrequited. Artists suffer from the weirdest moments... Moments which could be called Proustian in nature, triggered by the most unsuspecting assaults on the senses, which turn one inwards to other moments long-gone when one was face to face with the drawing board, just stroking that chalk or pencil across the paper, not noticing time or light or breath, just the two of us, or maybe the one of us; artist and subject, a unit in time breathing in the wonderful fragrances of the artist's life. The Drawing Vault will have to wait a while for the statuary, but I feel so pressured now to find that classical 'something' to have in my home that I could investigate from every angle, with every material and under many different lighting conditions. This will happen.

Not great - but a lot of fun

This sketch was done ultra quick, just to let off steam really. This is a made up face, so I just moved the chalk and conte across the paper having an enormous amount of fun. I love the close ups even more than the full portrait; they are more dynamic and mysterious. Hopefully, tomorrow we will have good light and I can draw a still life or something a little less ethereal. I have 10 days leave from work, so maybe the drawing vault will fill up some. I still feel a great need to go to a wonderful academic drawing class where we work on the same pose for three weeks, just investigating the form and the dynamics of light and dark. I won't be able to go to Florence this year to take up those wonderful drawing and painting workshops at the Angel Academy, but maybe this time next year, Guardian Angel willing, I will be looking for low cost flights to get me to wonderful Florence and six weeks of drawing and painting tuition with the Masters.

Full Portrait - Size A2

Close Up

Even Closer

Closest

WANTED - Academic Drawing Classes in London

I have been doing much research today on finding the best classes in the world for teaching academic drawing. They are around and are based on the old atalier style of teaching. I didn't know there would be so many. I found them on the wonderful Art Renewal website. There are superb ones in Florence, like the Angel Academy where you can do a four year course, and great ones in the United States. I will post more on the weekend about my thoughts on drawing and its relationship to intelligence, but it seemed to me that after research, I had better find the best drawing classes in London as soon as possible. Who are the best drawing teachers here in London. I have trawled the art materials stores just drooling over the wonderful drawing materials, so with that in mind, I am cutting out, and going to read about Michaelangelo.

Proof - Drawing makes the young more intelligent!

Some teachers in America teaching kids to become more intelligent via drawing. I knew it. I hope they don't mind my including this here. Thanks Folks!

Still trying to link up Intelligence and Drawing

I really tried hard today to find some information on the Internet about the connection between drawing and intelligence. I found one interesting article talking about the raison d'etre of classical academic drawing, and that was to investigate "significant form". Okay, so what does that mean. My take on it is, that "significant form" is that which is meaningful and necessary to create beauty in art. The form that is spoken about here is not mere memetics, but the understanding of the artist of the totality of what's in front of them. This is the totality of the figure as object in space and its own inherent features which cannot be assumed to belong to any other form; it is the totality of the figure in relationship to its surroundings and the significance between the them. How on earth does drawing make us more intelligent? Or is it the other way around, ie., a specific type of intelligence is drawn (sic) to drawing. As an artist, I want to know this and investigate this. Is it the mere act of continuing observance and focus, that flexes a muscle of the mind that then continues to flex itself in other areas of mentation? I am going to read my wonderful catalogue of the Michaelangelo exhibition that took place in London in 2005 at the British Museum. It was staggering. Now off to read.

Not my drawing you understand........

Can Drawing Make Us More Intelligent?

This is a thought that has been bothering me a lot lately. After all, they don't tell you this at art college or at univeristy, they don't even hint at it. But as one of my art teachers said, I thought rather pompously at the time: "There are two types of people in the world - those who see and those who don't see". I think I know what he means and possibly teachers who have a greater understanding of how each line and delineation of form works on the brain or consciousness would have the answer, but I am not so sure. I really have to think this one through. Is there really a difference between the right brained person and the left brained person. I would love to start some sort of research on this, because I have found over many years, those who can draw really well, are very perceptive. Perceptive in areas other than drawing. Oh of course, they can make superb representational works, but they are perceptive about life. I have also noticed that those who can't draw (or maybe won't draw) are not so psychologicaly astute as their so-called right brained brothers and sisters. Maybe I am drawing to broad a picture here and the sweep is too prejudiced, but I am going to investigate this and post back here later. I am putting on the brakes now and will report back in a few weeks. There must be something out there on the web that deals with this. Anyway, back to looking for a decent art class in London this week, and off to browse some delicious art materials stores.