Anna's defeat

In one of our readings, inspiration was defined as something that necessarily begins with defeat. And as uninspiring I thought linear perspective was at first, I think I've definitely met this first condition. Last Wednesday I felt completely and utterly defeated.

Understanding the lines isn't really the hard part for me, since I learned it once in high school and then again my first semester at Wash U. But wanting to make these mechanical drawings look good (without a ruler) left me feeling frustrated at the end of my drawing class--and it was a frustration that made me really think about how I could make it better!

Regan told us to work only in line, and I couldn't make my lines clean or vary the widths to make them interesting. I thought my lines were really ugly, so I decided that after I layed out my drawings using dots, I would really focus on connecting them with good lines. But, this wasn't enough. I was still drawing hairy lines, and I couldn't make myself stop!

Finally, I took a break from drawing buildings. On the bus home from class, I ran into Miles (and Rebecca), and I worked on my lines with Miles. In the first sketches the lines were ugly and in the wrong place, so when I finally started hitting them dead-on it was the best feeling ever! I'd drawn Miles like the clean and un-hairy dog that he is!

So this was a small victory--I'm still not there yet with the buildings--but I feel like I'll be happy with what I've done by the time Tuesday rolls around.

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34856259@N07/