The computer has been trying to download operating system updates for the past week. There was one file that was just over 8mgs, not a terribly big deal for dialup, except for the fact that the stupid thing always wanted to start downloading right after I start downloading five different huge other files. The piece of crap poor baby would get one percentage downloaded and then quit.

So, yeah, it's been doing this for a week. And then yesterday the poor computer starts crashing. shakes head. I remind myself that if I wanted a computer that worked, I would have bought a Mac. Yes, it's true: I love to cuss and gesticulate at the computer!

laughs. Finally, yesterday evening the computer tells me it's done downloading. and then it tells me we've "recovered from a serious error," which greatly amused SO who happened to be witness.

Instead of practicing my calligraphy, I've been practicing my drawing. I got a (out of print) book called The Complete Guide to Drawing and Illustration, it looked interesting and long enough to keep me occupied for a while if I did all the exercises. Plus the price was right. (yep, it was free. heh.)

I have been doing little practice drawings, but then I got stuck on page 30. One of the exercises was to draw a coffee mug. Nice and simple, right? Except I noticed I can't draw ovals. Which I found annoying because I can draw circles quite well. [If you're looking straight down at a coffee mug, the opening is a nice circle... but that does not make a very artsy picture! So, you're looking down at the coffee mug at an angle, and the opening at the top looks like an oval. An oval I just can't draw!]

It took me a while to figure out how to fix my little problem. The trick for drawing circles is to draw a square and then fit the circle inside, like that -->

So I thought the oval could be framed by a squished square, aka a rectangle...

But my coffee mugs still looked funny. So I paged ahead in my book, and check this out:

He's drawing a bowl of fruit, and he's drawn a frame for the oval that makes the rim of the bowl, to keep it "straight." Except the frame isn't a rectangle, it's a trapezoid! ah ha! I didn't realize I needed some perspective!

So, I'm proud of myself for figuring out this drawing trick... but why didn't any of my art teachers say anything about this? I took all the art classes in high school, and I distinctly remember the painful perspective drawings we made of cubes and spheres and pyramids and tubes and vanishing points. Painful, I tell you! And no one came up to me to say, "here's how to fix your ovals..."

eh. oh well.

Static8 > Journal > Archive > 25 Apr 2008 Entry