Sophie Blackall Illustration

Drawings and Snippets and Breaking News, (but more snippets than breaking news).

Monday, August 9, 2010

Ilustratour (one 'l') part 2


Day one of our week long workshop. We played exquisite corpse straight away and the results were stupendous. Then we introduced ourselves and the students showed me some of their work, (fantastically diverse and so good, I threw my hands in the air and told them to go home), then we stopped for coffee, all crowded in a nearby bar, then because many of them had said they were afraid of color, we all painted feathers and fish scales, and we made one bird and one fish and their feathers were so varied and beautiful... There are twenty one women in the group and they naturally separated into fish and bird and arranged the feathers and scales lovingly by hue and then in an extraordinary feat of cooperative glueing, stuck them all onto the respective backgrounds. I admit I was almost teary with the results. My battery faltered so the bird dominates in the video, but you'll get the idea...

They also named their colors. Some of my favorites were: Dust of the Wings of the Dragonfly, Oxidized Maize, and He Ate Something Bad Earlier.

Class finishes at 7, and it's so hot that you can't emerge for dinner until at least 10. I am enjoying drifting along behind a group of extraordinarily kind Spaniards who know how to order tapas and who feed me revuelto de morcilla and force to me to agree to its deliciousness before telling me it's a concoction of eggs, blood and pine nuts.
Oh and when I returned to the hotel the restaurant next door was on fire! It's all go in Valladolid.

8 comments:

Traci Marie Wolf said...

I am trying to get in touch with the young artist within me, and the art you are teaching (not to mention your art) totally inspires me. You inspire me.

McMGrad89 said...

Wow! Quite an adventure and it's only day one. I like that you had the students name their color. I am looking forward to teaching some of my grade 4 students some art this year. Maybe this is a good idea.

We Blog Artists said...

WOw...was everyone ok?
Such a great project...wonderful.
HUGS
Char.x

Sherry said...

This is so lovely, i can't wait to see more.

xo

Lara Meana said...

It´s so good you´ve posted yesterday´s work... now I can do my fish scales and start today´s assignment... just as if I had stayed there. It´s not going to be a fancy as the ones your students made, but at least it will be my try...
Miss you!

jAn said...

What a wONEderful way to overcome the fear of colour in naming them...have to admit to having the same issue!!!

Anonymous said...

Lovely bird and Fish. What a great class!
Nicholas g

Dean Grey said...

What a lovely collaborative effort, Sophie!

I love this!!

What's the name of the song used for the video clip?

I almost cried while watching it!

-Dean