The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!

Notre Dame

Anne Brannen — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 15:46:09 +0000

It took a long time to finish my painting of Notre Dame burning. Almost all of the images I saw at the time were of the cathedral, majestic, on fire. I was taken by the view of a neighborhood church in trouble.

The post Notre Dame appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

True Crime Medieval

Anne Brannen — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:53:39 +0000

Over the summer, I was listening to true crime podcasts, and even though I like them, I started wanting to hear somebody talk about some topic like what happened to the princes in the tower.

When I realized that I myself could talk about the princes in the tower, I needed a cohost, and the very obvious choice was my friend and colleague Michelle Butler.

As of this writing, we have 12 episodes live, and another scheduled for April 8 (we publish bi-weekly). Our colleague Laurie Dietrich provides transcripts. And you can find us here:

True Crime Medieval

You can link directly to the podcast from the website, or listen to it on the podcast service you like best. And leave us comments on the website, especially if you have suggestions for medieval crimes we can cover.

The post True Crime Medieval appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Fences in Griegos, Next stage

Anne Brannen — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 15:33:38 +0000

First stage of adding color on the masked Fences:

The post Fences in Griegos, Next stage appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Fences in Los Griegos

Anne Brannen — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 19:48:15 +0000

I came across a collection of fences in Los Griegos I really loved. Several textures, several layers.

I’m working on it now; here it is, masked:

Layers and layers.

The post Fences in Los Griegos appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Some Exhibitions Are Very Far Away

Anne Brannen — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:40:43 +0000

There’s a fascinating article in Hyperallergic about an exhibition at Lima’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), focusing on the work of three artists (Héctor Chiang, Ana Chung, and Christi Zorrilla) who are Peruvian of Chinese descent. There’s little text in the exhibit, at least not at first view, a direct connection to the difficulty Chinese immigrants ha, coming into a land of an entirely different language. I’m too far away to go see it. Darn it.

The post Some Exhibitions Are Very Far Away appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Los Griegos

Anne Brannen — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 19:34:49 +0000

The Albuquerque valley is essentially made up of a great many tiny communities that got incorporated into the city as the city grew. Sometimes you can still see vestiges of them. Los Griegos is one of my favorites, just down the street from me. It was in 1708 a collection of land grants given to Juan Griego, and became part of Albuquerque in the late 1940’s. It has, in theory, a neighborhood association, though it doesn’t look like it’s active. But it’s a great place to wander around and take pictures. Here’s one of the houses I like best, over near Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The post Los Griegos appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Urban Sketchers Downtown

Anne Brannen — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 22:34:05 +0000

The Albuquerque Urban Sketchers went to the Civic Center this morning. All the surrounding buildings are straight lines, straight lines, straight lines, vertical, horizontal. Some of us found people, or sculptures, or clocks to draw. If the pictures aren’t up now, they will be soon.

I myself found a taco truck, among straight lines, straight lines, straight lines:

I’ve been downtown with the Urban Sketchers twice now, and both times I’ve had the most interesting conversation with homeless people; instead of walking by them, I’m sitting still, drawing or painting, and they walk by me. And so I’m available for conversations about painting supplies and drawing techniques. I’m just another piece of the interesting day. It’s a wonderful day, I said to a man who came up to talk to me today. Any day above ground is a wonderful day, he said.

True, that.

The post Urban Sketchers Downtown appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Playing With Two Point Perspective

Anne Brannen — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:50:45 +0000

I went and sat across the street yesterday, and drew our house, making sure I had all the lines measuring up. The two vanishing points are off the page on both sides, which makes it more difficult. And our house has multi levels, and interesting angles.

But as with the last drawing, I love the way the careful lines make everything sound, but sort of disappear into the loose coloring and lines.

The post Playing With Two Point Perspective appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

Hall, With Books. Also the Parakeet Cage.

Anne Brannen — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:47:50 +0000

I am enchanted to find that what I am learning about one point perspective works very well in the service of loose and slightly chaotic drawing, thus:

For this sketch of our hall, I carefully worked out the angles — the vanishing point is in the mirror down at the end of the hall — but then drew quickly, over the pencil lines, and was loose with the watercolor. So it’s got a quirky look. But the lines are true. Much fun.

The post Hall, With Books. Also the Parakeet Cage. appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.

One Point Perspective

Anne Brannen — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 23:58:48 +0000

In the last perspective class, we learned about one-point perspective. Best example ever:

In da Vinci’s Last Supper, the vanishing point is right at Christ’s head (perspective in the service of symbolism, that); the horizon is actually visible through the window, and all the lines converge nicely. Thus:

So we worked on some one point drawings of our own, and then we got sent out to find more examples of one point pictures.

And I am very happy to say that I have found yet another excellent example of one point perspective:

It could only be made more perfect for my purposes were the vanishing point to be on the duck’s head.

The post One Point Perspective appeared first on The Lyf So Short! The Craft So Long to Lerne!.