School's Out

School starts tomorrow. But not for me. It's the first time since I was five that I am not going to school in the fall. That is not counting the two years absence I took for my mission, but that is different because in a sense I was just starting a different kind of schooling.
It's kind of weird. In High School I don't think I ever thought I would feel wistful to not be starting school again. However, after an idea I got from a fellow blogger, I am going to make up my own classes. I have done that off and on this summer as well, because I like it. Some of my former blog posts have come about because of it, including Archery and Figure Drawing. I think I like not being in school, but still learning.

On Pleasing Peas

One of my favorite fresh vegetables are peas. Walking out into the garden, lifting up the light green bushes, in and amongst the leaves are the little pods. Flat but full of potential. Fat, the skins bulging, with a hint of grey, showing age. And then the perfect ones, rounded, but not full. I pick one and squeeze the far end to make it open with a subdued pop. The pod splits perfectly down the little groove and inside are the little, round, fresh, green peas. I love opening and shutting the pod half the peas connected to each side. They interlock, and break apart like clasped fingers. And then running my thumb down the center shuffling them free into my hand. Biting each one, separately, the juice squirting pleasantly, and then viewing the uneaten half, shells upon shells. They taste of spring.
My family also often chews the pod up. It tastes like the color green, but it is almost a pity to leave that perfect round pod (that shows almost no evidence of being opened and empty) chewed, torn an
d used up.

American Symbols

When I was a sophomore in High school I wrote a paper about how four symbols of America were created/chosen, and how they helped unify different groups. The four symbols were the National Anthem, the Liberty Bell, the American Flag, and the Bald Eagle. Although reading it now, it isn't the best writing, it is interesting that I choose the topic. Essentially, how did inanimate objects affect the cultural and political climate in the nascent period of our country.
Last week some of my family and I were in the Washington DC Area (hence I'm slightly behind in posts). We went to the National History Museum where we saw the flag that flew over Ft. McHenry, and which inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner." The day after we actually toured Ft. McHenry. While we were there we also spent a day in Philadelphia where we saw the Liberty Bell, and Betsy Ross' home. She is the supposed seamstress of the first flag. On the last day of our trip we visited the Patuxent Research Refuge, which is the only wildlife preserve who's first mission is research not preservation. They are known for the discovering the harmful effects of DDT on eagles, and were instrumental in helping save the Bald Eagle from extinction. So in one trip I was able to relive my paper.
In the exhibit for the Ft. McHenry Flag there was one thing that said the flag is important because of the memories and meanings each of us put into it. And indeed that is how symbols work. They are meaningless by themselves but with the strength of collective understanding, memory, fervor, and belief they can be powerful influences for good (or evil). In a sense I think that's what I hinted at in my original paper. Objects, can help create a feeling of unity for people by representing larger ideals.

Figure Drawing

As I said in my last post I have been experimenting with some drawing. I am not very good at drawing people so I thought I would practice. I looked up figure drawing up on wikipedia. It talked about how there are three main techniques, so I tried each of them out. They are all in charcoal, one of my preferred mediums, and they are based off of images I found using google images, (no I did not just make them up, and I was pretty diligent about drawing them accurately... except for the action poses).

Shapes: Draw the person based on the shapes they are made out of. Notice the emphasis on the outside boundaries.

Light: Draw the person based on the areas of light and dark. Notice the outside edges are only discernible  because of the shading. I liked the vividness of this style best, but sometimes it was hard to keep the boundaries accurate.

Anatomy: Draw the person's skeleton, and then add muscles, skin, etc. I failed miserably at this one because I don't know my anatomy good enough. I'm especially bad at doing people's heads this way, and I found keeping the shapes related to the skeleton difficult.

A combination: These action poses (which by the way were much more interesting to draw, and hence I put more effort into them) I did a basic outline, like in the shapes but then went back emphasized the light and dark. I think most of these turned out pretty well. By doing the outlines first it was easier to know where to do the shading.