Jellyfish and Feet

Recently I discovered an interesting blog: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/ It is full over really interesting daring challenging inspiring work that crosses art boundaries of visual, theatrical, etc. art. I love it. Everyday is something new and different to charge my neurons. Sure, a lot of it may be things I can't use directly, but it reminds me that "art" can be so much more than I ever thought. And that my ideas can be a part of that world. So that is always exciting.

Today there was a post about photographer Alexander Semenov who takes these amazing underwater shots. The post was specifically about starfish, but it linked to older posts about the same artist and I came across his jellyfish pictures. Jellyfish are one of those morbid fascination things for me. These beautiful flowing colorful creatures that can sting and lacerate you into oblivion. I want to just watch them move in the water; their movement is so different and ...alien I guess. But I know they are sooo sooo dangerous. But they don't creep me out in the same way spiders and bugs do, and I feel safe watching them in an aquarium. (Well most of the time. Until I start to get really paranoid about gallons of water and the pressure on the glass...then I have to leave really quickly.)

I pinned several images to Pinterest just for reference, but there was one I was just itching to play with and, as the past few days have really handcuffed me, I knew I HAD to let myself do something artsy today or I was going to be cranky beyond all crankiness!

Jellyfish by Alexander Semenov

 And my drawings. I really just tried to let myself play with the shape and how it might react on different places on the body.

 

In other news, I taught my students how to draw feet and shoes today in my Fundamentals of Design Class. I honestly did not know if I could do it. I hadn't the faintest idea how to go about it. But I found some tutorials online that seemed to match the way I draw feet/shoes and made handouts for the class. Then I took off my shoes and started explaining the geometry of the foot while they started drawing. Then I started doing a demo of the drawing myself on my own sketchpad, upside down. (I drew in front of people! Something I am terrified of doing! And I did it, without THINKING about it!) Several of the students went off into their own corners with their feet/handouts and worked on their own, while I had others right in front of me watching my every move. I helped the front group out and then checked in with the corner people, made suggestions and corrections, then we moved onto feet profiles. In less than an hour, I saw such an incredible improvement in all of their drawings. It was so inspiring! I know when I learned some simple foot geometry and a few tricks on shoe drawing, it improved my renderings so much and in a very short time. The class has requested Hands next. Deep breath. Hands are trickier than feet, we don't usually just cover them with shoes! But I am encouraged by the Feet/shoes experience and inspired to try again!