Ellipses

No, this isn't another exhausting metaphor. It's really about ellipses. Really.

On Wednesday evenings, I've been taking an intro to drawing class. After dabbling around with paint for the past hunk of time, I felt like I hit the wall because I could no longer do what I wanted to. No enough skill, couldn't see how to get from point f to point m. More learning required.

Very basic stuff is what I'm learning- measuring, making lines, learning materials. Our class has been locked in a two week battle against the cube, cylinder, sphere. They're surprisingly resilient foes. We make one adjustment after another but we have yet to draw these shapes well, except for this bored teenage kid.

One of the many tricks necessary to learn is how to draw the ellipsis (the round ends of the cylinder). The key to making circles in various squished states is that they are always round. So you make a drawing like a tornado and you'll be making the correct shape. For some of us, this is an activity worth pursuing. For most, it's yet more evidence of something vaguely weird.

Today, I drew an embarrassing number of ellipses at differing widths. This practice happened after I'd been doing over an hour of drawing exercises already. The miracle is that after my first few dozens, I made a number of ellipses that were proportionate, delicate and pure. It was like making a snowflake out of dishwater. Delightful.