Too High! Too High!

I'm still playing with my story and decided to create another drawing for it.  Here the squirrel is taking the sock up to its drey, or squirrel home, but the sock is afraid of heights. My prep period was very short today because we have minimum days when we begin a new semester.  I'll have more time to play with my story this week when I have an hour to designate to it.  At the very least, playing with parts of the story for my daily sketches will help me think about parts that need to be cut, or revise.

PB Dummy book challenge

I am participating in two challenges.  One is the 12x12 in 2012.  The second is the Picture Book Dummy Challenge.  I wrote my first draft of one story for the month of January, which I was proud of completing. For the month of February, I thought I would rework my story for the PB Dummy challenge.  The problem is I haven't worked on it much.  I haven't really been in a writing mood, and when I do think or work on it, I think I complicate my story much more.  I really need to outline and restructure it.  That is going to be my goal for this week.  In thinking about my story, I decided to use it for my idea for today's drawing.

 But when I completed this drawing, I immediately had an idea for another drawing.  This led me to the idea of having themes for each week for my daily drawings... at least for a month or two.

Recon mission

This seems to be a year of making decisions and research.  Last night was a fun evening of recon work with some illustrator gals.  We were scoping out some possibilities of showing our work.  The experience brought up a lot of questions about what we want and how we want to represent ourselves.  But it also got me thinking about my own personal goals. Today I went to a grant writing workshop, which ended up being a waste of my time.  It only resulted in more questions.  I have ideas... many ideas of what I would love to do.  But they are so scattered and I need to make decisions.  I would love to make a living being creative all day.  I know being an art teacher one would think I already have that, but I would love to make a living creating my own art.  I plan on continuing making art, illustrating, reading, and writing, but I need to do more research about the various avenues I'd like to go in.  There seem to be a lot of options and possibilities becoming available to me.  I just need to figure out which ones will be best for me.

Anti-bullying bandwagon/ mural recognition

Today's staff meeting focused on bullying prevention. It was just an overview of what is to come in terms of staff development next year, but it went over important details of what we need to be aware of.  It is horrible experience any type of bullying.  I remember what it was like being a kid.  I'm sure we could all share a bully experience, but with technology, it is so much more powerful now.  The pain of it could be forgotten at some point, but now it is a constant reminder because what goes on the internet maintains in permanency.  The pain goes much deeper.  I hope the program my district is trying to implement will help.  I thought it would be interesting to create a drawing on bullying, although I really can't see any of my characters bullying one another.  But maybe it is something I should really consider.

To end this on a positive note, my co-advisor and I, along with our art club students were recognized for our work on our murals.  It was a very pleasant surprise.  We don't often get recognition unless we toot our own horns.  We were even quoted.  Our principal mentioned that we said "our students are not necessarily artists, or good at art, but they just want a place to belong."  The mural we are currently working on is of California Poppies and our students love it.  We have about 10-30 kids working on it at different times and many times, they invite random kids to come paint with them.  This will be our 8th or 9th mural on campus, but this mural seems to have generated the most excitement amongst our kids.  Last year, it was like pulling teeth to get our art club students to complete the choir mural. It feels great to be around that kind of energy.

Dance my pretty little puppets!

Today was our last day of finals.  We are now officially done with first semester and the year is half over.  To keep myself and a few kids who were done early occupied, we gessoed the drawing manikins.  A few years ago, I had a few students who thought it would be great to draw on them.  I would really like to use them again, but I want to discourage more defacing.  As we were painting them, I couldn't help but think of Pinocchio, the puppet who wanted to desperately be a real boy.  I love creating my sock creatures, but I love drawing them even more.  It is so rewarding to see them come to life with personality in paintings and drawings.  I'm sure every artist can relate to that.

I Scream Ice Cream

At some point, I think screaming would have been a great release, or chowing down on a huge sundae. Day 2 of finals and the depression of grading incomplete projects were overwhelming.  Good things about the day: my intermediate and advanced students seemed to have fun playing with the new technique I showed them, students completed and turned in work for the art competition, and art club and environmental club students worked on the mural and the garden, AND I only have to get through one final tomorrow.  This week is exhausting. Today's whirlwind had me at a loss of what to draw today, so I turned to my favorite book Creative Block: Over 500 Ideas to Ignite Your Imagination by Lou Harry.  It is a cute little fat cube with photos, questions, statements, etc.  It helps me to clear my mind enough to allow new ideas get through.  I opened it to a random page and saw an ice cream sundae and immediately this image popped into my head.   Something sweet sounds really good right now, but I should probably eat dinner first.  Hmmm...

Life Drawing

I can't wait for tomorrow!  Today was the beginning of our finals, where I had to be in a classroom for 2 hours with 36 kids.  My beginning students feel they do not need to take their drawing assignment seriously, which is resulting in many C's, D's, and F's.  I am getting many incomplete drawings because they would rather talk than do their work.  It is rather sad and makes me extremely grouchy.  I have to remind myself to take deep breaths.  But tomorrow will be a little different.  I will have 2 hours with my intermediate and advanced drawing students.  I have planned for us to have fun experimenting with different art papers and media.  I thought we could even play a bit and spend some time doing quick, rough drawings of each other.  I hope they come with an open mind to be playful.  It should be fun!