Conte Crayon

I just finished my drawing class, which owned my soul the past four days. I've been drawing like a crazy person, along with the rest of my classmates, and there is dust from our conte crayons everywhere. My laptop currently has about 11 full black fingerprints, and today when I took a shower, I found conte crayon in my ear. I'll be posting pictures of my final project soon. Speaking of pictures, I've noticed that the pictures I post on my blogs come and go randomly. I'm not quite sure how to fix that problem. I wish they'd be visible all the time, but maybe I'll figure something out. I hope you're all able to see some of these photos I've been sharing.

My final project is probably as tall as the floor up to my collar bone. It took a lot of muscle and a lot of fighting with the conte crayon. It was beautiful being able to draw on site, outside in Orvieto. Lots of Italian passersby would stop and watch, and leave me with a "Bellisimo!" or "Complimente!" Sometimes American families would walk by, thinking I was Italian, and say "Ciao," as their little kids looked on my drawing with beaming smiles. I think my favorite were the middle-aged men that would drive by and slow their car down to look and say "Bello" with a cigarette in their teeth. One guy that was walking by said something, and I thought to myself "that sounded a lot like English" so I turned around and said, "Che?" and he walked over and pointed at one of the windows and said "That is my home." I loved it. There were ups and downs of course. There was one SUV speeding down the road I was on and neither of us had enough time to react to their reckless driving, so the car swerved and hit some trashcans. The woman in the passenger seat hopped out and angrily pointed at my drawing while clucking some angry sounding words. I wasn't too upset, though, it was obviously their fault. Another downer: I sat near a spot where pigeons liked to poop. Every now and then, the wind would gently tumble dried, poop crumbs onto my paper. Oh, and a pigeon left me a fresh one as a surprise. It missed my shoulder by a hair... and added color to my black and white drawing. I think I covered it up pretty well, though. While I might not be completely satisfied with the outcome of my final drawing, I am confident that I tried new things that my professor taught me and it was a good learning experience. There is going to be a party later today celebrating our finished drawings, where I'm sure pictures will be taken. I want to show you some of my classmates' pictures as well as mine, so keep an eye out for them!