Figured It Out

Last night, some friends, my hubby, and I went to the closing party at Diamonds Coffee Shoppe. I had four paintings hanging there for about 6 weeks, along with other students of Kat Corrigan.  It was fun to see Kat and either see or meet some of her other students.

Later in the evening, we were feeding the cats. I was sitting in a chair and decided to sketch the cat tree. The shapes were interesting, since I was almost level with the lowest platform of the tree. At first, I couldn't figure out how to draw the top platform. After staring at it, I picked up my pen and traced the shape of the back of the ellipse in the air, followed by doing the shape with the front of the ellipse. Voila! This helped me see that the back of the ellipse was behind and below the front part of the ellipse.

From drawing and painting a lot of coffee mugs from above, my brain wanted me to see the ellipse going the other way, but my eyes made me slow down. This was the first time that I've drawn something from the perspective of looking up.

This is not a great drawing, but it was a great experience. Instead of measuring, I just focused on the problem-solving with the overall shapes.