ONLINE ART COURSE – SELF-DIRECTED CHALLENGE, MY FIRST CATARACT OPERATION, AND NEW LAPTOP NEWS

Online art course – another still-life graphite drawing

The final project in the first module, graphite, is a self-directed challenge, i.e. making a drawing without any help from the teacher. The video gives some hints, and several choices. You can either use the reference photo he supplies, or take your own photograph (he gives hints on how to get the best results with this), and with either choice, you can either do a sketchy drawing, or a more refined shaded one. Because I was getting a bit behind with everything, I decided to use his reference photo, and attempt the shaded version, and I hope I have achieved a good result!

My first attempt

This was not a success. It was not until I was fairly well on with the initial shading after completing the basic layout that I realised that the whole thing was not wide enough, and the drawing was quite squashed left-to-right. I decided to abandon it and start again. I do find this layout stage quite difficult.

Second attempt – success!

You will see from my second attempt that I got the proportions a lot better. Here is the drawing after I had completed the initial layout and the first shading, all done with my propelling HB pencil, as I had done for the eye studies earlier in the module.

Moving on to the shading proper, I used a combination of 2B, 4B and 8B graphite pencils.

I was quite pleased with the texture of the larger apple. The reference photo showed the lighter spots on the skin, and I achieved this by using my new electric eraser with the fine tip. I also went back into other parts of the drawing and used this to touch up one or two of the highlights.

What I have learnt through this module is that contrast is everything. It is essential to get the dark shadows really dark.

One thing I noticed with this drawing, which was done on the back of the failed one, is that this side of the paper in my sketchbook is quite a bit more textured. I don’t think this is so good for a finely-shaded drawing, so I shall make sure in future that I remember to use the front side of the sheet for this kind of work, so that the effect is smoother and less grainy in appearance.

Here are some detail shots.

Fixative

The other thing I have done since the last blog post is to buy a large tin of fixative. While doing this drawing, I was careful to rest my hand on a piece of scrap paper to prevent smudging, and as soon as it was completed, I sprayed it with a couple of coats of fixative, and I think this will prevent any danger of smudging.

Rest week

The final week of this first module is the rest week, during which you can opt to do nothing, or to catch up with any projects if you’ve got behind, or to follow the video with some suggestions to reinforce what you have learnt, e.g. practising the overhand grip, redoing one or more of the projects already done, or to start playing with the charcoal materials so that you are somewhat familiar with them before beginning the second module.

I have opted not to do anything, because I am already behind, due to having my cataract done, and need to keep up the momentum now.

My first cataract operation

On Thursday I had my first cataract operation, on the left eye. I had my initial appointment at the clinic in Plymouth on Thursday 7th as arranged, and they said that despite what the optician had said, the right eye was so nearly ready as to make no difference, and they would be able to get on with that as soon as the left eye had healed and all was well. This was good news.

To my surprise, they were able to book the operation for exactly one week ahead, i.e. on the 14th December. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing because I really didn’t know what to expect, and dreaded the thought of having a local anaesthetic and seeing them coming at me with a knife!! However, they reassured me, and said that all I would see was a very bright light, and all I would feel would be a slight pushing sensation on my eye, and the feeling of water running on my eye – because they have to hold your eyelids open with an instrument, they flush it frequently to prevent it drying out. I would also hear the ultrasound machine they use to emulsify the cataract lens so that they can aspirate it easily, in preparation for implanting the new lens in the lens capsule which they leave intact. It is quite amazing how they do it.

One of the nurses held my hand throughout and they were all very reassuring, letting me know exactly how they were getting on, when they were half-way through, when they were inserting the implant, etc. It was all over in about 15 minutes! I had had some eye drops inserted beforehand to dilate the pupil and also to administer the local anaesthetic, and apart from a mild stinging sensation (which was a lot better than at my initial appointment when the drops to dilate the pupil stung like crazy!).

When they had finished they stuck a plastic eye shield over my eye and I was free to go, complete with what my hubby called my “Party Bag” containing details of how to care for my eye in the coming few weeks, and a supply of eye drops and a roll of tape to stick the eye shield on. I had to keep it on for the rest of that first day and overnight, and was free to remove it in the morning, but I have to re-attach it at night for the next three weeks. This is proving more difficult than I hoped – I have to use a lot more tape than they did to get the wretched thing to stay on! I can’t sleep on the left because it digs into my face. I also have to clean my eye gently with boiled water, and be careful to touch it as little as possible, and certainly not to rub it, during these first three weeks.

When I attended for the operation they said that I would need a second referral from the optician for the right eye, which is not what they had said the week before, so I was a bit confused about this. They told me to make a six-week follow-up appointment with the optician and ask them to refer me then.

The next day the nurse phoned to make sure everything was all right, and I queried this with her. She said that instead of the original arrangement, I could have a two-week follow-up appointment with them at the clinic, and they would get me onto the programme straight away for the other eye to be done. I was delighted to hear this and immediately afterwards, phoned the optician to cancel the six-week appointment that my hubby had made at the optician’s on our way home.

About half an hour later the nurse phoned again with bad news – it was all off! The manager had said that in order to tick all the right NHS boxes, I had to have another referral as the initial one had been for one eye only. So I phoned the optician again and spoke to their head man and he said they could expedite the appointment for four weeks instead of six, and as long as I didn’t try too hard to read the chart, he was sure I would qualify for them to refer me straight away for the right eye to be done, especially as I had now had the first one done.

So we are now back in the waiting game, but in any case they wouldn’t be able to do anything until I’d been signed off as OK at the follow-up.

The optician’s was on our way home, and when my hubby stopped off to make the appointment, he also asked them to remove the left lens from my glasses, as instructed by the clinic. This would enable me to see better, because there is already a distance correction in the lens implant. However, the reading correction is now absent, as is my astigmatism correction. It is amazing how quickly the two eyes begin to work together, and I am having very little difficulty now; my eyesight is pretty much what it was before the operation, except that with the left eye, I am surprised at just how bright all the colours are! I had no idea that the cataract had dulled colour so much. I keep winking one eye after the other to compare – with the right eye, our white walls look a dullish pale cream, but with the cataract removed, the left eye sees them as bright white! The “sparkler” effect around bright lights is also much less, but of course it is still present, due to my astigmatism, and not yet having the right correction in my glasses.

Once the right eye is done and everything has settled down, I will be able to get new glasses corrected for the new situation. Something to look forward to in the New Year.

So far I am very pleased, and have had no discomfort apart from some pain in the bone around my eye, which the nurse said was probably bruising from the instrument used to keep my eyelids open, and this had disappeared by the following day.

My hubby is helping me with my eye drops – one drop of two different kinds, three times a day. It is quite hard to do it yourself, so I am grateful that he can do it for me. The first one stings like crazy after a couple of seconds, but after half a minute or so it is OK, and the other one is no problem. It’s rather unpleasant having it done but it’s only for three weeks, and the time will soon pass.

Stomach upset and fatigue

For several days after my operation I had a bit of a stomach upset with griping pains, loss of appetite and diarrhoea (extremely liquid output from my stoma, and more than usual). Not very pleasant. Due to my ME, I was also extremely fatigued, probably because of the stress of the operation day and fear of the unknown (not helped by losing my phone at the last minute just when we were about to leave!! – it turned up, and we were only 10 minutes late leaving, and still arrived in plenty of time!), and also quite a bit of travelling to and fro over the past week. I am now feeling a lot better, and having spent a lot of time during the past few days resting and sleeping, I now feel much more like myself again.

My new laptop

Having got my new laptop, as described in my previous post, I began the process of setting it all up and re-installing everything. As soon as I began typing on the keyboard, however, a problem appeared – the letter “E” key did not function properly, but would only work with repeated and heavy pressure. It would be “E” of course – the most common letter in the English language! Because of the circumstances of my purchase of the computer and the fact that I’d already put in a lot of work on it, I was very reluctant to return the laptop to the supplier for a replacement of the whole thing. I therefore contacted our local computer engineer who said they would look at it for me.

We discussed the matter on the phone. There is a possibility that I can get a replacement keyboard under the guarantee without having to send it back, and if not, quite honestly I am not averse to paying for a new one to be fitted, given that the whole thing was such a bargain. They are still awaiting a price on the new keyboard and will be in touch as soon as they have any news.

So I’ve come to a full stop as far as getting my new laptop up and running, but there is always plenty of other stuff to do to keep me occupied, and I was getting concerned that I was falling behind with the art course because of having my eye operation anyway.