capoeira log 11

Wed Oct 22:
beginner 1 -
warmup:
handstands and handstand walking.
need to practice looking forward on the wall + with shoulder (lizard) movement to simulate walking on the hands.

practice:
1. au to negativa - rolle
2. au to negativa - macaco

sequencia:
jinga - armada - esquiva parallel - twist into negativa - rolle


beginner 2 -

sequencia:
mea lua de frente (to parallel) - esquiva parallel - armada (to parallel) - cocorinha hop (sp) - quexada fake step to the other side - descida - negativa - rolle - au subida (sp? aka the short au) to negativa - rolle - descida - negativa - roquo


Friday Oct 24:
Beginner 2 -
practice:
1. negativa - rolle into negativa
2. negativa - queda de rins on straight leg side into negativa
3. alternating 1 & 2
4. different kinds of aus: the normal one , the short one, the one into a handstand, then au sem mao.
5. kicks: 5 to each side of each: armada, quexada, mea lua de compasso, mea lua de frente, martelo

sequencia:
1. jinga - cocorinha hop (sp?) - quexada fake into jinga (other direction)
2. quexada - esquiva lateral lean back unto back leg into negativa - roquo - short au
- descida - step up into negativa - rolle

all levels -
practice:
1. wall stand - to headstand (knees to your chest) - negativa
2. half mea lua de compasso - headstand (knees to your chest) - negativa

sequencia:
1. descida - switch jinga - esquiva lateral back to jinga (pendulum) - [gancho from the back leg] - esquiva parallel - step forward

partner:
A: half mea lua de compasso - headstand (knees to your chest) - negativa - rolle
B: esquiva lateral (low) - negativa - roquo - switch jinga


Wed Nov 5:
Beginner 2 -
practice:
1. armada - quexada - martelo (from front leg)
2. mea lua de frente to armada - mea lua de compasso (from jinga pose)
3. with partner, while jingaing: one person does mea lua de frente to armada, the other esquivas and then does floating martelo on the armada step and spins back into jinga.
3. we practiced queda de rins moves:
* negativa - queda de rins - negativa
* negativa - backwards queda de rins (sort of like macaco) - negativa

capoeira log 10

W Oct 15:
practice:
we did a number of drills each for about 30 seconds to a minute.
1. 2x squat position - martelo (left) - martelo (right)
2. 2x hopping over sticks (left and right)
3. about 3-4 armadas (left and right)
4. descida - esquiva parallel - esquiva lateral - descida (repeat)
5. jump rope (alternating between feet together and skipping)
6. bar bell curls about 10 - 15 lbs
7. jingaing with weights on her hands
(it was hardcore, i was sweating a lot).

sequencia:
1. armada - descida - esquiva parallel - martelo from the esquiva - leg goes back to jinga
2. armada - descida - negativa - rolle / negativa - queda de rins negativa - rolle - switch jinga

roda:
i faked a mea lua de compasso. and then did a real one, but actually hit my partner. i felt so sorry. this is the importance of looking in capoeira, especially dangerous moves like mea lua de compasso. we volta mundaed and everything was ok. but i will practice looking!

nice day

today was just a nice day hanging out with N before heading to lakewood. i felt almost no stress which was a good feeling. so i could be calm and just enjoy the day. the weather was nice which was a good thing. i told her that i think i thrive best w. movement, even though sometimes i can fall into the trap of staying too still. she said stop all this deep talk, more adventures. heh.

later on, i sang bob marley to my mom. "woke up this morning, smiled with the rising sun. three little birds perched on my doo..." she laughed at me.

painting 3

it's a new semester and i'm painting again. this time it is a bit more specific. i'm learning the Acrylic Painting Techniques. My new instructor has a very realistic style, as opposed to my old instructor who has a kind of painterly style. I am very enthused to learn from him, and gain some new insight into this painting thing.

he let me borrow materials the first class, but I will have to get my own for next. he had acrylics that stayed-wet, which is awesome. the acrylics i used in my last painting class dried way too easily. but yeah, the material list is so long! probably worth it though...

i had a shaky start. but when he saw my finished work, he said "boy, you really hit the ground running". i said "thank you". he asked if I had taken any painting classes before. I said "yeah, another one". He said, "it shows". It felt good to hear, given I didn't think it was so great. I felt he was humoring, but a number of people in the class complemented the work as well. so i guess what i learned in last class did pay off. a couple of techniques that were useful from last class: thinking about composition, the preliminary sketches (the teacher had to remind me to do it at first), how to see (i had to take a deep breath and really stare before I started), the underdrawing, the color wheel and complementary colors, overpainting, and scumbling techniques. ok, the last two i stole from the book I bought ages ago on acrylic painting techniques.

the class was intimidating at first (and I guess I would still be intimidated, if they weren't acceptant of my picture), since everyone seems like professional hardcore artists. each of their works were done skillfully and with care. mine wasn't a realistic depiction, but interesting I guess because of choice of composition and my loose simplistic style. i hope i will be able to do realistic pictures though by the end of class. ..

anyway, yeah, the theme of class was to take an orange and make an interesting composition out of it. we could do anything. so i ripped mine open and peeled off the skin in an irregular way so it resembled an onion and put a pallete knife right through the center. I set the orange facing me so that I was staring at the tip of the pallete knife. oh by the way, the canvas size he is making us use initially is the smallest possible (8 by 10). this contrasts heavily with the large canvii I'm used to from the other class, but change is good. the idea was to make the orange larger than life. I developed the orange in stages to give it texture: lots of lots of overpainting. and I used colors freely. in painting it really doesn't matter as long as you convey the lighting patterns with enough contrast in your color scheme. and a lot of times when adding new colors, I would leave a little bit of the original color in the brush. this had a nice blending effect. a trick i learned in last class. also, i learned to smooth out my edges and not leave any tiny white spaces on the paper. my other teacher had taught me to let the contrast in color make natural edges as opposed to drawing them directly.

the teacher didn't really tell us any new techniques. just observed a lot, made nice comments, treating us all like masters in our own rite. i'm kind of hoping he does get into the techniques though. the class is still good without i guess: lots of encouragement, lots of time, no stress and inspiring people. but i really want to master acrylic painting. that's what i'm there for. i wanna be at the level of my instructor. hope he passes the knowledge on.

capoeira log 9

thursday oct 9, 2008

1. we mainly practiced the jinga fake to cutting off some one doing negativa-role (find out what this is called) to the raiz.
2. also, we practiced mea lua de compasso - step back - mea lua de compasso etc.
3. we also held handstands with a partner and slowly came down on our heads toward the end. when we do handstands we need to look straight ahead.

( i know i know, i have a lot of missing updates. i will try to catch up sometime.)