Winter Dance Showcase

This time last year when we went to the LaGuardia Winter Dance Showcase, Daya was an 8th grader desperately waiting for her high school results...so different this year!

It was a great show, but the kids behind us talked the whole damn time.

30 Faces in 30 Days- Half Point

I mentioned once buried in a post somewhere that I'm doing 30 Faces in 30 days thru Sktchy Art School this month which is an online thing.
I found it on Instagram.

The Sktchy app has been around for several years now, it's where people upload their selfies which can be used as art reference.

I don't really use it but I saw this challenge on Instagram and felt very pulled to do it.
There are (I think) 5 teachers who share a video with a portrait tip every day along with a reference photo.

For the most part this has been worthwhile.
I'm finding it very difficult to do time-wise, as the time I can usually do it is at night at the end of the day and I'm pretty tired.  This in addition to all the other art stuff I have been doing.

But I am keeping up with it.

Some of the lessons are good reminders, good review, or just taking a different approach and trying something new, no risk.
Some days are just stuff I already know.
Only 2 of them I have found to be essentially worthless and not well-taught.
(I outright disagree with one of them.)
Mostly they are pretty good. Nothing new, just different perspectives and working in ways I normally don't.

Everything is done in one small watercolor sketchbook, it's a 5x7 or thereabouts.
It is getting me to do stuff I wouldn't mess with otherwise.
None of them are long, time spent ranges from 5 minutes to about an hour.
None of this is meant to be "finished" work.

I like a couple of them, most are ok enough, and a few I really don't like and that's ok.
There is value in all of it.

Day 1: Blind Contour Drawing- I haven't done this since college? high school even? And it really is super-valuable.

Day 2: Proportions I like this lesson too, but it only works for a straight-on view.

Day 3: Mapping Light and Shadow

Day 4: Shading in One Direction

Day 5 Vanishing Point (this is the one I disagree with)

Day 6: Finding Motivation in a Word

Day 7: Set a Time Limit

Day 8: Creating a Natural Black

Day 9: Leaving your Drawing Unfinished

Day 10: Negative Space

Day 11: Sculpting with White Space

Day 12: Drawing Teeth (and Loving it)

Day 13: Marking off Proportions

Day 14: Crosshatching with a Limited Palette

Day 15: Creating Contrast with Warm and Cool Colors

Most of the photo references are ones I would never choose.
So actually it's good that I'm working with them.

Almost none of them would be good for painting.

But they are ok enough for drawing.

Goodbye DaVinci and Goodbye Richeson Paper

THIS REALLY SUCKS.

DaVinci is closing.

I am still not over Jerry's closing and that was not quite 2 years ago.
How am I going to get over DaVinci closing?

They were the only place I could get my favorite pastel paper!
DaVinci carries stuff Blick doesn't have, and they have open stock pastels and pencils that Blick doesn't have.

So I looked online (it's always been hard to find everywhere) and look what I found.....!

DISCONTINUED??

My pastel Topiary Cats (when I finally get caught up to studio work) will have to live on a different surface now.  This is so sad.
I feel gutted.

Goodbye, Dishwasher!

I have lived in my apartment for 13 years.
There was a guy who lived here for one year before me.
Then the couple who owned the (former) bike shop down the street lived here for 20 years.

The bike shop people were the ones who remodeled this apartment- they took their bathroom sink with them but the kitchen counters, cabinets, stove, and dishwasher are all from them.

So I don't have one of the landlord-remodeled apartments.  Everything is very old here. If I was to move out everything would go, and this apartment would get granite counters, wood cabinets, and a new stove.

I don't know if the landlord puts in dishwashers or not.  Maybe if they are there already.  He did not put mine in. But I know some other apartments have them.

In any case, I LOVE HAVING A DISHWASHER.
I cannot live without it.
Until fairly recently, maybe within the last 10 years, it was a pretty rare thing to have in an NYC apartment.  This is the only apartment I ever had with one.

I have known my dishwasher is a bit of a time-bomb.
They last for around 10 years and I think mine is closer to 20 years old.
And it's a cheap one.
Every time I use it, I talk to it, asking it to please live a little longer.
I worry about when it will die.
I worry if its dying will make my kitchen flood, which would be really bad.

This strategy has mostly worked.
Ah but alas, Saturday night the pole thingy in the center cracked and the pole no longer does what it is supposed to do (distribute/spray water?)..... so my dishwasher no longer washes.

It's not worth fixing.

So I bought a new one.
I rent so I got a cheap one which is still a good chunk of cash.
It's not something I'd ask the landlord to replace.  Even if they did I would pay for it forever in a rent increase.

The dishwasher I ordered is out of stock but I'm hoping to have it installed within the next 2 weeks.

Until then....... we are on DISH RATIONS.

I refuse to spend my life washing dishes.
My teenager definitely will not.
And I'm not washing up after her.
I don't want to use disposables.

So, until we get the new unit in, we each get:
1 bowl
1 plate
1 mug
2 spoons, one large one small
1 fork
1 butter knife
Chopsticks also available.

Stove gets the egg pan, the cast iron lodge pan, and 1 pot.
MAYBE the flat skillet if we need it.

Everyone washes their own stuff.

That's it.
I would rather not use dishes than wash dishes.

Gouache and Figure Drawing

I went to figure drawing today.

It was so warm, too warm, I thought my weather app was set to the wrong city!
What the heck!

I went to figure drawing.
On Sundays there are 2 one-hour poses, so I thought I'd see how gouache in sketchbook went.

It was really really difficult.
I felt so rushed.  Getting everything down in an hour (with breaks every 20 mins) was really difficult.

I need more practice!

I was six or seven minutes late (Sunday trains!) so missed the first three 2 minute poses but got 2 warm-ups in.

Then the 1 hour poses.
I need to get better coordinated with this.

If you ever need an afternoon to go by REALLY fast just go to figure drawing.

Dance Notes

This is a gift.
Background based on Banesh Dance Notation, which is used to document ballet choreography.

ACEO (2.5" x 3.5") pastel on Colourfix

Art & Dance

Right when school started I had this Great! Idea!

It took a little bit to get it through, but I did, with an excellent outcome.

American Ballet Theater donated all of the shoes- and a LOT of them- they have only been worn once!

One of the art teachers used the shoes as a project for her whole class!

There were more kids wanting to paint shoes than there were shoes given out.
I need to check if we have more shoes as the Art AP said we can do it again for the Spring art show.

Tonight was the Art Semi-Annual.
All shoes were sold except for six remaining pairs, which hopefully will sell at the Winter Dance Showcase next week.

This was my idea, something I initiated as a new parent knowing no one and nothing about how these things work, and I'm really proud of how it all came together, how everyone played a part in it.

I helped with taking sales- and many people said what a great idea it was and how great the shoes are.

Several pairs sold before I got there.

I bought a pair. :)

Adventures in Subtle Tints

I painted with the Reuters East Coast Art Group again tonight.
Such cool people.

I have been wanting to do that sky study but haven't been able to yet- so that's what I worked on tonight.  My new paints are lovely. I used others too.

This is not finished, and I probably will finish it.  It's not quite right yet and I want to "get" it.
6x8 oil, 2 hours so far...

Palette tints.... I can immediately tell by consistency the difference between the Vasari and not-Vasari paint.

Again

Guess what lasted for less then four hours.

I'm peeved.
I'm ticked.
It doesn't seem right.

These are $120 shoes which lasted Daya between 3-4 HOURS.

So you'd better believe I'm going to ask questions to as many people who know about this stuff as I can.  Daya tells me "Well that's just how it is with pointe shoes."

It's not a great way to communicate about the issue.
She is very annoyed at me for asking everyone I can about how long we can reasonably expect these shoes to last for her.
But I'm paying for it so I have every right to ask and learn.

This is what I already know and understand:

• Feet are individual and especially at Daya's age always changing
• She will go through shoes faster because her feet are extremely strong and flexible, which is bad for shoes
• Professional dancers often wear shoes once

But now we have gone through three pairs since September....2 were Gaynor Mindens which are supposed to last longer- previously like clockwork she needed new shoes every three-4 months. And she's not in class outside of LaGuardia.

And I don't like Daya's attitude about it, like I'm wrong for saying "Hey..... Um.... Whoa!"
She's being way too casual about it.  It's easy to say "Well that's just how it is" when it's not your burden to assume.  I feel like she's not really appreciating my role.
It's ok for her to think I'm the Most Annoying Person in the Universe but she can't treat me like I am.
And she is. She's arguing with me about it.
And that makes me resent giving the still-significant support this requires.

This is what I found out by asking people at Bloch, Onstage, and her teachers at LaGuardia:

• Bloch: the shoes aren't dead but they are broken in too low, they aren't the right shoe for her.  To which I asked- why then was this not determined in the fitting?" They spent a lot of time with her, she tried on a lot of shoes, and why after all that is it now just "the wrong shoe"?  Daya is responsible for making good decisions too, as she's the one who ultimately has to know.  Now it's three bad shoes in a row and I'm ticked about it. She just says, "It's not my fault." Again, not the right thing to say.
• Bloch: get less-talented feet!
• Onstage: She has reached the level of strength and ability that you will never again get three months out of a shoe.  It will probably be more like one month.
• Onstage: We have girls who are in here every week for new shoes.
• Onstage: Yes we have seen this before.
• Onstage: Yes parents all have the same reaction.
• LaGuardia: Yes only getting 4 hours is strange.
• LaGuardia: We will order her next pair to see if they work better but unfortunately pointe is very expensive and if you can't afford it she won't be able to do it. But since she is so enthusiastic about it we want to give her a chance to find another shoe that might work better for her and last longer.

*****

Isn't that INCREDIBLY generous and amazing of the LaG Dance Department???

*****

So we went to Onstage for a fitting which I had to pay for since we did not purchase the shoes at the same time.  Daya did not want me to go with her but I insisted, good thing too, because who else was going to pay for the ribbons/elastics and the fitting?

She tried on a lot of shoes and decided on Russian Pointe.

Onstage has a pointe shoe club, buy 9 get one free thing. 

Basically save $100 on every $1,000.

Oh, I have to document the paperwork, I'll need it to show them on future purchases.
This is the best place to stick it because I'll find it.

******
So.
I really wasn't expecting this from a financial standpoint.
Kids and adults look at the world very differently.
So there are two perspectives- "Provide my needs" and then the financial perspective which is very real. And children cannot really understand that financial part, I know that.

But I REQUIRE to be treated nicely.
I wanted to talk to Daya about it to tell her how I am feeling.
I said I will somehow find a way to do this but you need to treat me nicely... at which point the conversation deteriorated and she really just wants to tell me how annoying I am and she doesn't like my focus on how long these shoes will last. (Finances)

So I guess we are out-of-sync right now.  She's really mad, not speaking to me.
I am keeping my distance because I prefer to feel good and be out of a ring of spikes.

And really, all I am requiring is to be treated nicely with respect even if she thinks I am annoying.
It's not a justification to be mean.  You can't bite the hand that pays for your pointe shoes. You don't get to respond to my request to be treated nicely by asking "Then how do I tell you how annoying you are?"  The answer: "You don't."

ALSO she can do full 7 weeks summer dance FOR FREE and I'm saying yes to a spendy paid program.  That's pretty damn NICE of me!

ALL teenagers are annoyed by their parents.
It's normal, I know that.
There is nothing I could do or not do to not annoy her.

But regardless of how annoying I may be, I am very generous to her .
And she needs that generosity.

So she needs to be respectful, it is in her best interest.
Otherwise I'm out.
I'm not doing this shit for my benefit.

Literally all she has to do is speak nicely to me and I can't even get her to the simple point of that understanding.

Unexpected

I keep thinking about that sky from yesterday and doing it in oils as a practice to get those amazing colors.

Vasari sent out their sale promotion email...... and they have a set I didn't know about that is GORGEOUS tints of natural earth colors. (Natural earth pigments not synthetic.)

Ohhhh... me and tints, me and earth colors (naturals or unnaturals...) this set was made just for me, obviously.

As it happens I do have all the corresponding natural earth pigments in the set already, but they are Rublev and Williamsburg.

AND ALSO how perfect would it be to do that sky???????

So I decided YES I'm going to get it.

It's been several years since I went to Vasari and got any of their paint.
I have a lot already, and it's studio paint not plein air paint for sure......and also it's seriously expensive.  It's boutique paint. REALLY really nice and luxurious but not necessary.
Also, since their studio moved it's a bit of a trek to get there.

What makes Vasari paint so awesome is the killer-high pigment load with the looser consistency, Unlike Old Holland which is stiffer. It's the oil paint equivalent of an expensive sports car.

So I decided to take the bus west, then downtown.

I started at 42nd street and 7th ave, got there just in time to miss the bus.
It was cold.
I waited.
And then I spotted something..... curious..... which turned out to be this:

Seriously, how cool is that?
I joined the Facebook group and found the lady who painted my stone.  How fun!
It was nice and unexpected and made me very happy.

I decided to keep the stone because I love it and it has such great energy, and it is a good reminder of nice surprises.

******

In the Vasari showroom, on the mixing table, were the tubes included in my gorgeous set.
I didn't need to test them out... seeing them in person sealed the deal.

No trip to Vasari would be complete without  a picture of ALL THE PAINT!

AMNH Hunting Dog

I did end up going back to The Museum of Natural History to paint!

Here is an African Hunting Dog, 3rd floor in African Mammals.
Gouache, about three hours.

I wasn't as focused today as I was on Saturday, but it might have been because my friend was there and we were talking.  I don't mind having company but I also like to be quiet and focus, it's why I like going out alone most of the time.

The background colors in the diorama were what attracted me to paint this- they are pretty amazing and I didn't get it right.  Gouache dries darker and even though I was basically putting straight white over the sky at the end, it's reading too dark.

My colors are too saturated despite my efforts to keep them light and subtle.
I might go back by myself and re-do this to see if I can get those colors properly.
It's very difficult to do and very complex.  I'm not unhappy with this attempt, it's fine but I really want to work with the more subtle tints.  This would have been easier to do in oil than gouache, and I'll probably do a studio study of those colors in oil at home.

Even the photo doesn't match the colors in the scene. The display is really well-done at the museum and has, weirdly, the same level of color detail that is found in nature.

Oh, and there was another guy painting in the bird section! His setup was similar to mine- gouache, mini tripod... I said hi but didn't stay long. I'm not sure what box was mounted on his tripod.
He didn't have a light though, and it is so dark in there I have no idea how anyone could work without a light on their setup.

Then my friend and I went to the T-Rex exhibit.  Carey and I went last May when she visited but we didn't do the Virtual Reality part as the line was crazy.
But the line was not crazy today and it was seriously incredible!!
Makes me want a set of VR goggles to game in.

The exhibit is pretty wonderful. I spent a long time there in May so it was nice to wander around without needing to see everything.

T-Rex poop:

Cheetahs

You know, you can live in a place forever, and you can be crazy-long-term-familiar with a place, and still never put 2 and 2 together.

I never realized it, I made assumptions and never knew.

The Museum of Natural History does not care one bit about painting in the museum!!
The guard checked my backpack, saw all the art supplies, and said, "Have fun"!

Unlike certain other institutions... like The Met.........

In hindsight I suppose it makes sense as AMNH is so child-friendly.....

So today I went out with the NYC Urban Sketchers.
I usually don't.
Blame it on the rain, if it wasn't raining I would have been off painting alone in Central Park.

Gouache in sketchbook, 2 hours.
My setup was great! I knew it would be dark so I brought my small light.

I'm going back tomorrow.