Today has been a day for trying something new. I’m not sure what the astrological climate is at the moment, but today did seem to be the right day for pushing the boundaries.
This morning I spent across the road at the Baptist church helping to put together free food packages for local families who are having financial difficulties during our current crisis. Although I have donated financially to the local food banks for some time now, I have never before been engaged directly in the process. I couldn’t help noticing that the supplies we were assembling for a “family” were a good deal less generous than the amount with which I return from the supermarket each week, to feed just my wife and myself.
While on the subject of food and learning experiences, for the first time in my life this evening I actually made a pizza. I don’t mean that I started with a pizza base bought from the supermarket. This was the real MacCoy (or should I say the real Marconi, perhaps) beginning with flour, yeast and so on. I’m glad I was not competing in an episode of Bake-Off, but the result was a creditable impression of the real thing. I suppose that what I ended up with would probably be called a “deep pan” pizza, in a local take-away, although I gather that this concept is one entirely unfamiliar to the Italians.
I am pleased to be able to report that I managed another drawing session this afternoon. Continuing the theme of trying a different technique each day, I opted for a traditional pencil drawing. My subject was a large pear and a kiwi fruit. I wanted to see if I could capture the differences in the surface textures of the two pieces, as well as conveying an accurate impression of their solidity and location in space. I have tried still-life drawing with this medium before, but I don’t remember concentrating on surface texture as a problem. Only now it occurs to me that it would be an interesting challenge to set students in a life-drawing class. I don’t recall ever being required to think about the texture of bodies before.