Honestly I have not been this excited to be doing something in a long time. I have so much energy that I haven't really noticed the long days and have even been heading out for walks around Florence in the evenings. It's also kind of bittersweet, I don't want it to end I definitely did not book enough time for this.
My expectation of what art school in Florence was going to be, ended up being completely different. I had expected to be told we are doing this and doing it this way. In a class setting with everybody doing pretty much doing the same thing. I think I was expecting to be chastised for my techniques being self taught I know how I go about some things isn't the most conventional. It turned out to be very individualized although I share my studio space with another person and we do interact our instruction is completely different.
Both of my teachers have been the perfect fit. Although there is a bit of a language barrier at times it hasn't been an issue because they show me what they are talking about and for me I get the most value from seeing how things are done rather than speaking about it. The language barrier has also been great for my Italian comprehension.
What the days have looked like so far is I come in we discuss what I want to do that day. Then I get right into it. Throughout the day sometimes they will just watch me quietly then walk away, other times it's only one or two words. Gentle reminder of how I am going askew. If I get it corrected I get a "molto bene" if i don't i get a "it is good but try this...."
Today I finished off my still life in pencil. The background was hastily being thrown in and was told I could move on from the drawing. I have to work on my proportions when drawing free hand but otherwise my teacher had nothing else he could add at this point. So practice, practice, practice.
I wanted to work on my portrait work next and to my surprise he said I am doing it well drawing wise. I have all the tools I need to do it i was hoping I would get some insight for how to do them faster and more accurately but he said no you just need to keep practicing it. I will start painting it tomorrow and we will see what kind of feedback I get.
The last day I will get some help with my watercolor techniques and that will be all I have time for this trip. Honestly the more I learn the more I want to know.
Morning of day 3 I thought was going to be a hard get up. It ended up being a later evening with plenty of Italian wine and food, I thought for sure I'd be hurting today. But was up at 6am not being able to sleep anymore. It never ceases to amaze me how different wine here effects me as opposed to home. One or two glasses of red back home my head starts to ache. Oh well get ready for the day and get back to it. I'm excited to be painting today. As much as I love drawing, going 5 days without painting anything has got me raring to go.
Jackie ❤️
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