Developing Talents

Since graduating from college, it's amazing how much free time I have. I work full-time, but just the fact that I don't have any homework to do or tests to study for is amazing. I've always thought that people who could draw or paint were brilliant and secretly I wanted to be one of them. But, I had to content myself with other things because, I told myself, I just didn't have the gift.

Then I watched my second graders paint. None of them are child prodigies, but they paint with freedom, confidence and delight. I figured, if they can do it, so can I. So, I took myself down to the public library and checked out some books on sketching. I bought several different kinds of sketching pencils and erasers and started reading. Soon I was ready to draw my first drawing, so I hunted around the apartment for something classy enough to be drawn as a still life. I set a few things out on the counter - an empty bottle, a canister and an apple, carefully selected from our fridge for its roundness and evenness - and left for work planning to come back that evening, arrange the objects and begin. When I came home however, the apple was gone. My husband had eaten my still life!

We had another well-shaped apple, so all was not lost, and here is the result:




And and for an exercise in perspective, some geometric shapes. Drawing #2: