the long winter, pointe shoes (again) and perspective drawing

it was another cold day today. 13 degrees when i woke this morning; 23 degrees when chanda and i walked to chacott to buy yet another pair of pointe shoes. the snow piles are very dirty looking. sometimes you can't tell the difference between an icy snow pile and the street.

(in the chacott store). the last pair we bought broke down rather quickly. i don't think they fitted her properly. i hope these last a little longer and feel better on her feet.

 they're very pretty. 

these shoes are called "maker" shoes as they are completely made by a human being, not partially by a machine. each shoemaker has their insignia. this one has a butterfly. each maker works on several different styles of shoes. this is the classic pro 80 made by the butterfly guy. the classic pro 80 made by the wine glass guy would fit her quite differently. our favorite ballet shoe salesman said, "so you never know how they're going to fit you, even when it's the same maker. because you never know what he was feeling the day he made a particular style. he could have just had his lunch and was in a good mood, or he could have come from home just having an argument with his wife. you just never know." 

hmmm.

i guess we don't.

all i can say is . . la dee da.

 on another note, we did a little perspective drawing today:

 morgana beginning her work combining horizon line with color perspective (a deepening of the shading for the water closer to her).


 chanda's simple pencil sketch of horizon line combined with diminution: the addition of the land jutting out from the horizon line on the right hand side of the drawing. it gives the sense of a far away shore.

 morgana first placed the boat in the picture and then will indicate the horizon behind it (it's still a work in progress). this way she works with the white of the paper for the sail, clouds and crest of the waves. the addition of the horizon line (at eye level) and the shore line on the right will increase the feeling of depth in the picture.

 we looked in our history of art for young people book for examples of pre-renaissance perspective and found giotto. he does a very simple horizon line for several of the paintings in the arena chapel in padua. the one on the right is of christ entering jerusalem with trees and the walls of the city in the distance.

 i thought this was a great example (botticelli's "the birth of venus") as it has the horizon directly behind venus, and a curving shore on the right.