Drawing in Italy

I always forget something obvious when I go on vacation. On the cruise to Alaska, I forgot my hairbrush, so I had to buy one there. They did not have a wide selection. This time, I forgot to bring comic books.

I said yesterday that I did not want to be reading in English, because I thought it would make keeping my Italian up more difficult. Also, my brain was fried, and I wanted it to have a chance to rest up, but I still wanted to be doing something kind of productive. I obviously was not going to bring the guitar, but I thought I could work on my drawing.

I remembered the sketchpad, pencils, and even a little pencil sharpener, but despite having it written down, I did not remember to bring the comic books that I was going to sketch out of, working on my comic drawing. I thought about drawing from my head, but I ended up drawing the furniture.

Yes, I was in Italy, the land so full of inspiration to so many artists. Yes, Vicenza is rich in the architecture of Palladio. Wandering around would have been a concern for my aunt, though, and not worth the hassle.

More to the point, her apartment is rich in art. There are prints from Picasso, Gaugin, Modigliani, Da Vinci, Seurat, Monet, Van Gogh, and lots of others. Her husband was very cultured. Still, those were paintings, and they were above my level, and I don't know, drawing the furniture seemed like the right way to go.

It was educational. There were things that looked more accurate by being less accurate. With the books underneath the radio, the set has eight books, but I only drew seven, or it would have been too crowded. I could not draw all of the glassware in the hutch, or it would have looked overcrowded. It wasn't overcrowded, but it would have looked it.

Some of that is probably me not getting the proportions right, but I remember at the Killers concert there were things I could see clearly, but could not get a picture of, and I decided it had to be that my two eyes were giving me a picture that the single lens of the camera could not manage. But some of it is probably the drawing too. I mean, there's a reason that the Simpsons only have four fingers.

It was not just furniture, because I also did details from the wallpaper and the light fixtures. I can tell you that the moldings and fixtures and paper have a strong Art Nouveau influence. That is probably from renovations done when Nereo's parents were separating the house into apartments. The furniture is more modern; somewhat streamlined but it seems very big. That's probably from when he and Elda were married.

I can tell you how little things change from visits years apart. My aunt will do a lot to avoid getting gifts, but anything she does take is there forever. It reminds me of other homes of elderly people I have loved, where certain objects may not be elegant, but they seem so much a part of the place that you depend on seeing them there. This is Grandma's. There are the elves. There's the panther lamp, and the cow cookie jar, and the picture of the old man praying, and together they all mean "home".

I also did draw out of my head a little, which is why there were some sketches of a rat. That was unfortunate because my mother was looking through and she was enjoying it until then. She loathes rats. That was like the one thing that I need for the comic book that I thought maybe I am ready to draw now, but I am not.

Besides the rat, Mom was impressed. I thought she would think it was weirder than she did. My aunt said they were perfect. She also loves me and doesn't get to see me that often, so is probably not impartial.

I see the flaws, but some of them are not too bad. My freehand lines are reasonably straight, and people can and do use rulers for things like that. I need practice with perspective. I can get there. Mainly, there were two things that I got from it.

One is the reminder that there are a lot of things to draw. I have worried about drawing people, but there are buildings, furnishings, and all the little objects that make up life. People wear clothes, and they don't automatically come out right when you draw them. So maybe I do need to sketch landscapes and bowls of fruit and fashion layouts and all of those things.

The other thing is just a lesson in seeing. The word that kept flashing on me was "sensitive". I think I have heard some artists described that way before, but I hadn't really thought of what it meant. For me, it was feeling these things, and the emotional attachment to them, and bringing them out from the background to the foreground.

I don't think anyone will buy a sketch of an old-fashioned radio or dresser, but it's a part of the place that I love. It has a history. Someone designed that wallpaper and created it. It's just being more aware, and not taking anything for granted. At least, that's what I'm going for.

And, that is a good segue into the International Comic Arts Forum, which I shall start writing about next week.