Short day Tuesday, long day Wednesday. I have to be in the department early so I'm ready to teach the first lesson of the day, but it's also Life Drawing for the Lower and Upper Sixth from 6.15 pm to 7.45 pm.
My Fourth Year lesson was ok – poppyheads gauged out of scraperboards by the easiest students you can imagine. I hope they're not sick of poppyheads yet: we have five more sessions together.
Then I had the rest of the day to wash the clay off my first lot of cast relics, open the two-part moulds, discover that six of the ten casts hadn't worked properly, reseal and pour plaster into those six plus a couple of others, and clear up the increasingly chaotic workspace! Which I am ashamed to say has spread onto a table that's officially earmarked for Lower Sixth students… Luckily, they are being very understanding about it. Well, to my face, anyway.
Later in the afternoon I drew 15 relics on an etching plate. That was fun and I tell myself that my wobbly drawing 'style' adds to the effect. But you can't get away with that sort of excuse in a Life Drawing class. This time, the class was being led by a visiting tutor who assumed that I was an expert Life Drawer and started asking my opinion on how to teach the subject. The whole experience was very embarrassing and I threw my two drawings in the bin afterwards. But I'll still have a go next time.
