Day Seven started with a $2 breakfast down at the bottom of Victoria Street. Two poached eggs on toast was $2. What a frickin' BARGAIN. Add bacon, add $2. A hashbrown? another $2. What a great idea - costs the same as any other breakfast in the end but it just felt cheaper and that was the entire idea, I guess. Full of eggs and tomatoes and toast and tea, we mosied up to class to begin our last day of Life Drawing at UCOL.
Hot and worn thin by so much thinking and looking and marking, both sessions were relentlessly difficult. Mostly every other classes had gone home by lunchtime but we plodded on. I heard knocks to the doors by people wanting to come see what we were doing - other classes visited each other to see what was going on but because we had nude models, and as is customary in such a situation, visitors aren't allowed in when the model is there, and when the model isn't there, we're not either so life drawing is super boring to visit.
We had Mark in the morning and Mary in the afternoon.
I did a better job with Mary's repeated pose from the day before, but I still managed to cock that foot up. And her head is too small. And her shoulder is too wide. And her arm has something weird going on with it. But the leg is good. and the wrist, great wrist. Ah well - at least I can see that - about the head etc I mean, everyone can see the *foot*.
I haven't managed to bring one good drawing home with me, but what I have learned is to see better. It took me a while but I realised that I can see things and notice things that I couldn't before the course. Reflected light is one of the things. I've always known about reflected light but I've never really seen it properly before. Those last two days and it was suddenly so clear to me. That's a huge step forward. I've also realised the importance of knowledge of the skeleton when drawing figures and that's an interesting development.
This was the longest of all the days. Not least of which for the long drawn out farewells the Bates party managed to play out after we'd finished. You know, they *really* annoyed me, and I thought I had more reasons why they did but it seems it was just their, or more to the point, her aura. I just had her pegged on walking through the door and she did nothing but prove me right the entire week. They were saying their goodbyes, swapping contact details and hugging some and *photographed* Marianne. Pat and I were pretty sure we wouldn't get, nor did we *want* a hug from the Bates so we scarpered off to the pub for a couple of beers. Actually, we'd done that every day after class but this is the first time I mentioned it to you. The barman knew our order by now and Stell*r (heh, yeh) was quiet and cool. Unfortunately it was neither of these things today - being a Saturday night, it had been invaded by wedding guests and although people watching is a great sport - it's not one I felt like doing that evening. We had a couple of beers then decided to push off and find dinner.
Afterwards the thought of a movie sounded appealing, so we stopped at the cinema to check out the offerings. We really only had two choices as Pat refused Sponge Bob straight out. Ladder 49 and Phantom of the Opera. To be fair, and to prove I'm really nice when i want to be, it only took Pat about 30 minutes of gentle manipulating and pretending not to hear me when I said "but i don't want to *see* Phantom of the Opera" I finally said "oh all right then" and we bought tickets to the 6:30pm showing.
I'm really glad I went to see that movie. No, really, I am. It's nice to have a new "worst movie" topping my list of worst movies. God that was the *worst* movie. The music *sucked* the story *pft*. The acting was, well, I barked out loud a few times. Honestly, had I been sitting on the other side of my Aunt I would have left after 15 minutes - 20 tops. But I suffered through - if anyone knows the story, can you tell me *why* Raoul (Worst Name Ever) had to remember to keep his hand at eye level? From what I can gather it was pretty much so the Phantom could grab him and tie_him_up. God and did i mention the music is *crap*? it really really is. After it finished, my aunt turned to me and apologised, saying she shouldn't have made me see it and yes it was truly bad.
By the time we got back to the flat it was empty, we had it to ourselves. All the Bates food was gone. The rooms were emtpy and the bathroom smelled *normal* [I didn't tell you about the stinky smells and I don't think I will] I didn't watch any movies and I didn't set my phone to wake me up in the morning. We'd agreed to meet my Uncle Chris, Pat's husband at 11am the next morning so we even had a sleep-in to look forward to.
Sunday dawned sunny and continued to heat up during the day. Chris arrived around lunchtime and he and Pat went home to Waikanae, and I drove the very pleasent, scenic trip from Wanganui to Rotorua to spend the night with Kristy. I finally got home to my flat in Auckland later on Monday and it seemed like I hadn't been there in weeks. My bed was still unmade and none of the housework elves had moved a thing. I had some lovely mail waiting for me and my life that'd been parked on the side street was now moving back into it's place.
I've had an illustrative assignment this week and it feels good. It feels natural and easy. I'm doing a good job of it. I'm sure there's other stuff I've learned that hasn't perculated it's way through my brain to my hands yet, but it'll get there.
I recommend the Summer Arts program in Wanganui to anyone who can get there. The website has the courses around November 2006 and they're very reasonable, all things considered.