Look Left, Look Right

Ah yes, here we have your typical college art class assignment: drapery.
Aaauuurrrrgh drapery. I have never ever drawn anything that I get lost in so completely.
"Wait, ok, so there's this fold, and that fold, which turns into this crease, and wiggles around down there... wait, where am I? What did I just draw? WHAT AM I DOING HERE *PANIC*"
Yeah, not so fun. ... Except when my teacher is awesome and includes a deer skull! So of course I had to make that the focal point of our two projects on drapery. There is now a well-established running joke about my extreme adoration for animal skulls. I am so fine with that.
And here they are, done on 18"x24" black paper.

Also in the still life were two fashion mannequins and a skeleton, all three of them wrapped in fabrics. We had looked at some past student examples of pieces done of the mannequins and skeleton before that. In the drawings, Skeleton always seemed to be draping his arm over the very feminine Mannequin, sporting that signature skeletal grin. One of the other students and I made up stories about how Skeleton and Mannequin got together, got in fights, broke up, and later about how Skeleton was a stalker and always tried to woo Mannequin by singing lounge music to her... all based on the drawings of past students.
Art class is good fun, I am always, always happy to go. I think everyone needs to have an "art class" in their life: something they can always look forward to, something they enjoy regardless. It makes life much easier to live.
What's your "art class"?

Charlies

I feel like I have so much to share! But I promise this is my last post for today.
Thanks to The Dainty Squid, I found this odd drawing application: play with it. According to The Dainty Squid, this program is a drawing tool that "makes you look like you have mad skills, even if you don't". I feel that it's a good description.
At first the application was fun to play with and I was impressed at its abilities to accurately and effectively fill spaces and such. A lot can be achieved by one simple stroke of the mouse (or tablet).
Here's what I came up with.


See, I have a trio of animal skulls that I adore.
A spotted skunk, a badger, and a coyote (seen above).
Skulls (particularly animals) hold my artistic attention more than anything I've ever drawn. It all started with designing gothic cartoon characters wearing skull masks, then copying pictures out of science books. Then I bought skulls of my own. They've appeared in several of my pieces since then. Come to think of it, let's compile a timeline of my skull buddies right now!

Skull 1: Coyote.

Coyote was my first. He is special because of his missing tooth in the front left, just after the canine. I love him terribly!






Skull 2: Skunk.

Skunk was, of course, second. He is often pictured in more lighthearted and cute pictures. (I use "cute" very lightly.)





Skull 3: Badger.

Badger is my newest and turning out to be my favorite. The proportions of badger skulls are so beautiful.





Animal skulls, at first, may seem creepy. And I get a lot of weird looks when I tell people that I collect them. People associate dead animal parts as creepy, cruel, and gross.
To me, I am immortalizing these particular animals with art. They will be remembered and honored as beautiful beings long after they were trapped or hunted. And to me, that's doing them a great service.
Perhaps that's why I enjoy drawing and painting animal skulls so much-- or maybe it's just because they're so gosh darn fun to illustrate. It is likely both. :)