009: of charcoal and chalkdust

009: of charcoal and chalkdust, originally uploaded by light paintbrush.

quotidie
009 : 1.09

i've been anticipating this day since my teachers told me about it at Parents' Evening. i have never been in such an environment - a real workshop that stretches you to your limits and beyond them, that gives you a headache, that is worth so much incredible experience.

the workshop was fast-paced, having us grabbing new pieces of paper and in pursuit of charcoal sticks in a remotely sturdy condition every few minutes for two hours straight (two breaks in between throughout the workshop, meaning we did a total of eight hours). there was no time to think, no time to get the proportion perfect (although others were naturally gifted with the element of proportion in their work). there was barely even time to look at your own work - your eyes had to constantly be on the model. the only thought was to get the charcoal on paper and get it to make marks.

this was taken after the first break. the person in the photograph is the tutor who guided us through the workshop (name of whom i shall have to find out and edit into this) and whose verbal articulation really held my attention. i've always admired teachers and public speakers for their ability to articulate in front of people, and it is something that is i guess acquired over time and experience. but this lady in particular, and my art teachers, because of, obviously, the subject they are associated with. it is much more significant to see an individual made confident by his familiarity towards the subject if the subject is something i am interested in.

the pieces on the wall are the last two pieces each of us did before the break. you can actually see mine (i've marked them out) a little bit. the one on the top is the piece i like most because it was abstract. in its process i was the first to finish and i began to feel uneasy, like maybe i wasn't supposed to do something like that or that i wasn't doing enough. but i reminded myself that i liked it, so everything else shouldn't matter.

this lady had said many things i would have wanted to jot down in my moleskine journal, but i could not. and my memory is not reliable in this case because my mind was too preoccupied with charcoal and shading and light and curves.

i am left, for now, with only one paraphrased quote by an artist i unsurprisingly cannot remember the name of: if you know what you're going to come up with, then there is no point in coming up with it.