Life, it's not my cup of tea

Friday was one of those days when I would have been better off staying in bed! I've been trying to stay off the computer and break my 'addiction' and I was very good on Thursday and didn't even switch it on. First thing Friday morning however I thought I'd check quickly before going to life drawing and I wish I hadn't. Someone had taken exception to me pointing out that putting on weight can lead to a lack of inspiration (for drawing) and I/we should continue off list. My blood immediately started boiling and as a result I missed my bus! As I reached the garden gate the thought of turning around and giving up on the day crossed my mind and I tried to fight off thoughts from previous experience of when one thing goes badly, a lot of others things do too. Then the bus flew by. Exactly on time. The driver must have been a non-smoker and didn't need his end of route ciggie.

Life drawing started fine but by the end of it the heat from the fan heater had not only got me but the others too. I felt quite sick - and not just from looking at the body piercing on her right breast! Not only that but the model couldn't keep still and her position kept changing so I just stuck with the one drawing adding the different body parts together! I suggested we get more male models as they don't need the fan heater on!

I wondered whether the e-mail might have had a male-female element to it too as the writer was male. Men are less likely to tie their body weight to their self esteem. For instance, if a woman feels her clothes are tight, she might worry, but a man might blame the tumble drier!

Weight has been on my mind these last few weeks. It might seem from this post like I'm feeling miserable but actually I'm feeling great! I've taken time out from the blog to concentrate on painting the house and getting odd jobs done that somehow fell by the wayside last year. I've also got to the weight I've been aiming for (no sympathy or applause please, we're only talking pounds here as I'm very short!) and have been treating myself to some new clothes - something I very rarely enjoy doing.

My weight was constant at just over eight stone from the time I left school (and those stodgy puddings) to the day (I'm pretty sure) I took up quilting in 1999. I was the same weight after having two babies. But at the quilt class there was a tea percolator in the corridor and for the first time in years I started drinking tea. (I used to only drink water). Fast forward to September 2003, sitting around at home in Kuwait having lost my motivation to even go out the door. Mark asked me what was worrying me and I realised it was because I was feeling so fat, I was at my heaviest weight and I was eating no more than usual.

That's when I decided something drastic needed to be done and I went on the Atkins Diet. The weight disappeared with incredible ease! This leads me to where this meandering post is going. I don't eat wheat, drink coffee or alcohol anyway, and I don't smoke so the diet suited me. But as soon as I drank tea, the weight started to go up. When I try to lose weight and drink tea, I can't. So I hunt around on the Internet for any evidence of this having a scientific basis - nothing. Last week, watching a programme on weather changes and the effect it had on early man I was struck but a statement that man, as hunter gatherer, used to live on a diet of meat. When the migrating animals disappeared and people had to plant crops and live off farmed crops their life expectancy dropped dramatically.

I have very little time for much of what scientists say. I disregard their latest theories and statements and look instead at the 'facts' they later tweak or discover to be wrong. It gives a better clue to how much these trusted people really know. To cut to the chase, I find it absolutely incredible that even today we don't know what foods are suitable to put in our bodies! Every other creature on earth has a chosen habitat and specific diet, but not us. Surely that, if nothing else, should be known by now with absolute certainty?

Today, with all the accumulated knowledge of generations before us we can't decide whether oily fish is good or bad for us and more importantly we can't explain why record number of people have cancers, asthma, heart disease, allergies etc., etc., etc. The one thing everyone does seem to agree on is tea is good for you. Well, I'm not so sure. You heard it here first!

Life drawing

My concentration failed me this week. I tried not thinking too much about the proportions and just getting on with the drawing as I did last week but it just wasn't happening. I had to rush there again this week and the bus got hit by a car just yards from the stop - nothing major, in fact by Kuwaiti standards almost insignificant! But it was clear as soon as I got out my pencil and paper that the lines weren't going to flow. I think the drawing looks OK but it was a big struggle.

I became aware of a pain and constriction in my throat and I realised I was reacting to someone's perfume. I was also thinking about how difficult it is to draw sometimes and yet there is an expectation, from myself and I imagine from others, to improve. Some days it's enough of a struggle just to get a decent likeness!

There was a funny moment though during the session when the model's mobile phone rang and he whispered "I'm sorry, I can't talk right now"! Yeah, me too!

B and 3B pencil.

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Maggie to list 6 weird things about myself.

1. I change my clothes quite often during the course of the day. When I go out I wear fairly normal things but as soon as I get back home, like a Jekyll and Hyde character, I change into a bag lady, wearing loads of layers which vary all the time. Last night watching TV, and therefore inactive and getting quite cool, I was wearing 2 pairs of socks and some leg warmers, a pair of tracksuit bottoms, a thermal vest, a tee-shirt, a jumper and two fleeces! (No, there is nothing wrong with the heating!) Strangely, I wear less than this when I'm out in the snow!

2.I believe (if that's the right word) in astrology. I don't think that's weird but it seems many people do.

3. I think the theory that human beings are actually aliens may have something in it!

4. I love to sit through the credits, of films, TV series etc. Mark grabs the remote the nanosecond it becomes clear the end is nigh, whereas I can't change channels or leave the cinema until I see the very last thing on the screen. I even read the names - Mr Vin Diesel's' personal hair stylist, the catering crew, the layout artists, the dolly grip, the best boy, the dog trainers, I read them all!

5. I melt my ice cream in the microwave - who thought human beings should eat ice, I ask you?!

6. I get cold feet about this blog quite often, but you would have had to see the blog yesterday to understand this one!


So many I'd like to tag but I have to choose only 6, so now I'm tagging

Dex

Anna

Suzanne

Andrea

France

r.e/Dr Dark - all those skulls, there must be something weird there!

Good drawing session, bad week

A strange thing happened at life drawing yesterday. I hadn't picked up a pencil all week, I had been rushing around a DIY shop with Mark before the life class (at an unearthly hour of the morning for me!) so I had to rush to get there in time. I sat down, opened the sketchbook and just plunged right in. No settling myself, checking angles and measuring, no deep breaths and emptying my mind of all other things, I just picked up the pencil and drew, and amazingly it all seems to fall into place. I think I'm happier with these two drawing than with any of the others I've done. This week I concentrated on lines. I added a little shading and I was happy with the composition so I left it here and started another.




















The poses look quite different without the second hand, I think. I tried to give the lines some varying weight. Some of my figures have looked almost like cut-outs but I feel I've made some improvement here. The hand draped on the back of the chair gave me some trouble - at first it looked like a tarantula and I was tempted after a while to simply rub it out and forget it, but with a bit of perseverence it's not too bad although it could be better! HB and 3B pencil.

Fate had a laugh at my expense this week. I'm back to square one, with perhaps a busy week ahead, as a migraine made a timely appearance and put paid to my plans. Oh well, the world is still turning. Perhaps I'll give myself more time and try and see if I can't manage a few sketches along the way!