Elora's wise quotes of the month

While running down the hall with Joshua:
"Watch out or the Holy Ghosts will get you!" (I guess we need to clarify a few things.)

As I was putting her to bed after two nights in a row of staying up too late:
"I want to sleep, but my body wants to exercise!"

When I was talking seriously to her and trying to get her to take a nap, she interrupted with:
"Mom, that booger in your nose looks like a hotdog."

Joshua was crying in his crib. Elora noted wisely, " He's crying because he wants me to be a boy baby but I'm a big sister." (Is she projecting her own feelings here?)

I have a necklace with a woman in a long flowing dress. Upon viewing it, Elora observed, "Maybe she needs a man to dance with. She needs someone to dance with, but she can't find a man!" (We need to stop reading those stories in her Disney Princess book.)

One of her classic baby sister comments: "When we get my baby sister out of your tummy, she will probably wipe her boogers on the wall by the bassinet." (can you tell what Elora's been in trouble for doing lately?)

Second Series: Portrait #2

This is the oldest of the four kids I am doing in this family portrait series. They've all got pretty blue eyes!




I like the angle he is framed in, and I like the little bit of shadow on his face. I know many photographers wish to avoid shadows, but in a drawing, I find it adds more interest and variety to the face, rather than a washed out shot. I guess thats why I prefer more dramatic lighting in photography too?





In this next one, I adjusted the position of the light reflection on his hair, to better show the shape of his head. In coloring the shirt, I am adding blue to the right side of the page, and lighter sienna colors to the left, so that the lighting on the sweater matches his face. These portraits are all going to be displayed together, thus the kids are all wearing the same colors...I might need to go get another few brown pencils!




This next scan is a little on the blue side. Oops. I'm starting to add the little details like the eyebrows, lashes, etc. I have to be careful they're accurate, or it might change the look of the whole portrait. The teeth are always a tricky spot too. (His lips aren't really that red in the drawing!)



Between these last two scans I made several minor adjustments to get the drawing closer to the actual model's face. I changed some small shapes around the eyes and made the lashes longer; I also filled in the details on the teeth. The nose didn't seem fleshed out enough so I also added some shape there. Adding the freckles really made it resemble him a lot more! This scan is a little light,but will have to do.



Sidenote: If you haven't noticed, I have a link at the top of my sidebar to my new art blog..you can see the same finished version of this portrait there as well.

Joshie's naughtiness of the week

What has Joshua been up to this week? Well, lets have a look. Did I mention he always wants to cook like daddy? Usually mommy catches him before he gets too far, but I guess mommy was distracted this time. In my defense, he was playing with dishes in the sink when I checked on him before this...his other favorite pastime!



After I took this video,I did find two more bowls covered with oil, that he had been frying in daddy's pan of oil (which mommy thinks is disgusting, but thats another story). At least he didn't really have the stove on! Ugh.
Oh, and if you missed it, this was Joshie's exciting adventure last week:


Doesn't he look pretty in mommy's lipstick? He's not wearing a shirt because we had to change it...it too was all covered with lipstick. Later that day, he painted his lips with eyeshadow. Both times, I must say, Elora was an accomplice. She knew better than to put it on herself, but she held the tools for him while he applied it to his face. (He also enjoys uncapping daddy's deodorant and wiping it on his tummy and neck. He does like to be fresh and clean!)

PS in a happy side note...Josh has been asking to go #2 on the potty for a few weeks now! He will say, "Poop. Potty, potty!" Then we run to the potty and he actually goes! We've been letting him pee after every diaper change (and he really does it!) for a month now, but the poop thing was his idea. Big boy!

16 Weeks Profile

What I'm craving:
Anything Dairy-
Banana Splits: a whole banana, a few small scoops of ice cream, and a blob of jam. Like everyday.
Cottage cheese with fruit- usually mandarin oranges, because that's what we have.
Strawberry Milk- I know, I usually think its gross. But now I have it all the time.

Anything tomato based-
Tomato soup (with goldfish crackers)
Salsa with chips
Spaghetti

treats-
Raspberry Sorbet
Milano Mint cookies
Mint Oreos with milk
Raisin Bread Toast
Strawberry and cream cheese Toaster Strudel
Lifesavers and Starburst candies


How I'm feeling:
Irritated...but we've already talked about that.
Tired.
Impatient: Shouldn't I feel kicking yet? Is it a boy or girl? When's my ultrasound?
Excited.
Nervous: who's gonna watch the kids while I have the baby? How do they do things in this new Hospital?




Other side effects:
Insomnia: its been taking me two or three hours to get to sleep!
Sick to my stomach if I wait to long to eat.
Scatterbrain/Lack of focus: I keep making mental lists of things to do, then I don't do any of it. (teach Josh colors and shapes, teach Elora to write her name better, sew stuff with my new sewing machine, journal, update blog, do the dishes, library, organize computer files, take maternity pics (check), etc.)



Overall: not too bad! Elora says we can now name the baby Rhiannon or Toby (she just watched Labyrinth) and she still talks about "when we get my sister out of your tummy" every day.

Why I Hate New Things

Joseph and I have been arguing for well over six months about the need for a new computer in our home. He insisted that ours was too old and dying, I was certain it was fine, and good enough for our needs. I hate spending huge amounts of money, especially when its not necessary.

He pointed out how it runs slowly when streaming tv shows online (I assert that this isn't the reason we have a computer anyway). He claims its a big problem that it won't recognize most flash drives (I suggest he do things the old fashioned way and email himself his homework, or just finish it at home.)

Finally,after much heartache and disagreement, Joseph won and we got our new computer just a few days ago. It's pretty enough: it came standard with a flat 19" screen, and all kinds of fancy updates built in. He got a good package deal, and its not like we spent our own money anyway, it was tax money we just got from the government. (And before anyone gets the wrong idea, like last year, we did NOT do stupid things with our W-4 withholding so we could get a big return- the government gives us money because we don't make enough money to even be taxed. Okay?)

Anyway, I think Joseph is pretty happy with his new toy, even though not all of our files and programs are transferred over yet,a nd we could potentially run into some more problems. For instance, we can't find our Photoshop disk (though it might not be a bad thing if we have to get the newer version now, especially with Joseph's student discount.)

But one thing I've discovered about myself: I hate new things. Even if it was something I initially wanted (which in this case, I didn't) I always find ways in which the former "thing" was better.

For instance. I hate this keyboard. HATE it. I don't know if its slightly smaller than our old one, or if it has something to do with the keys being more shallow, but I keep missing the space bar with my thumb....and my wpm have gone down by at least two thirds. Also, the other keys seem to be placed slightly off too, because I'm having to correct things way too often. Not that I need to be the best temp in town (my use of the computer is purely recreational at this point) but it is definitely a sore point. Literally: now that I'm starting to type more accurately, my thumb feels like its getting a callous from the poor keyboard design.

Another sore point: my files aren't on here, and when I put them on, I will have to organize them all again. My files are in folders within folders x 10, very carefully categorized, and I really don't want to find the time to get them that way again.

All my online bookmarks are gone. I went through and printed a list of all of them before we unhooked our old system, but I'm going to have to type them all back on.. and there are scores of them...many of them blogs that I don't want to put on a bloglist, because then I'd feel too obligated to check them. Not that I don't already.

My pictures aren't here. It's probably good to get them all off the hard drive so they don't take up so much space, but I miss my slide show screen saver that always came on...plus, if I want to pull up a photo to email or put on my blog, I'll now have to get out a disk or find it on another storage site, which I'd rather not do.

And okay, part of my problem here might be horemones. I must admit that when I'm pregnant, I want to kill people twice as often as I do normally. And then I want to cry because they don't understand why I am angry. Perhaps this new computer thing isn't so bad. It's just the baby that hates it.

That doesn't even make sense. But its okay. I can say whatever I want when I'm expecting.

Grandmas

While I was growing up, I had three living grandmas, two of them great-grandmas: Grandma Betty, Grandma Norma, and Grandma Helen. All three are from my mom's side of the family, and my Great-Grandma Norma even lived around the block from me!

In elementary school my sister and I would stop by her small house every morning to get orange juice, and would often visit and get treats or draw pictures for grandma. When we were older I regret that we didn't stop by to see her as often as we should have, but I still enjoyed seeing grandma and telling her about my day. She always had soap operas on the tv, and every time we were there she would tell us how we shouldn't watch it because it wasn't a kids show, but she never did turn it off while we were there! Silly grandma. Her last few years of life (when I was in college) were sadly spent in a nursing home, and it was always hard to visit her there, now that she couldn't walk or see, and often wouldn't know who we were.

Because I was closest with my great grandma, I've always thought of grandparents as much older folks than myself. When I had Elora, it was strange to realize my mom was now the grandma! Elora has two living grandmas: Grandma Betty (my mom's mom) and then my own mother. At first it was hard to refer to my mom as "Grandma" in her presence, even though I knew my grandma was even younger than she is, when I was born.

But nowadays, all I have to do is look at the visual evidence to see that my mom really is a grandma! I don't mean that in any bad way- she certainly doesn't look old! Not at all. But just looking at these photos you can see that adoration only a grandma has for a grandchild:



And in return, the adoration a child only has for their grandparents! Just look at those kids admiring their grandma. Awwww. Grandma is the best!



My mom works full time, just as she did when we were kids, but we are usually visiting during holidays when she is home all day, which makes her look even more grandmotherly. On our visits she is always making treats (not a normal pastime for her!) and it seems in most of my photos she has her apron on...even outside to say goodbye. Most telling of all...she's married to someone who looks like a grandpa!
Thats the strangest thing of all....Elora adores my dad too, and frankly, I just can't see it. I guess its just that "grandpa vibe". Can you believe he's a year younger than my mom?



We love grandma and grandpa!

Second Series, Portrait #1

Recently a former neighbor of mine asked me to draw portraits of her four children. Its been interesting working on portraits again, especially as it seems I have less time than before to draw. If I'm going to be drawing, I like to have a long stretch of time to be able to work, or I feel like I just keep starting over again, but somehow this has been proving more difficult lately.

I've narrowed this lack of time down to two things: Joshua being naughty, and my being pregnant. Sure, there are the usual things like laundry, dishes, getting Elora a snack every five minutes, and Joseph having a tighter schedule so he's not home to help with kids or cook.... but Joshua.

He has started pushing chairs around and playing in the sink, playing with things on the stove, putting toys in the toilet at least twice a day...every time I get him out of trouble, it seems there is something else to take care of. Yesterday he put lipstick all over his face, and later in the day he put eyeshadow around his mouth. Sure, I wasn't drawing that day, but it did make us late for church (as usual.) I'm just sayin'....I think he's getting close to those terrible twos.

As for being pregnant, well I frankly need to eat more often or I will get sick. I will have just spread out all of my pencils, rescued Josh from the toilet, and resumed my drawing, when I realize I need to eat something NOW or I will die. Since I can't have food near my drawing and risk spilling on it, nor can I sit somewhere else and risk the kids "helping" me with my portrait while I am otherwise occupied, this means I have to put it all away again.

So yeah, it's taking a while. Anyway, here is the first one. This is the family's youngest, who was born just prior to my neighbors moving. Isn't she cute?



Her most striking feature is her big blue eyes, which are very blue:



As usual, my scanner isn't picking up everything as I'd like. Her headband is lace in the photo; I did do a little texture on it which you can't see, so I will probably add some more later on. There is more color to her face at this point than is evident, but its coming along nicely:




In this scan, I skewed the scanner settings more toward red orange, trying to pick up more detail, but I'm not sure it worked. Her face actually has some nice blues, greens and purple in it, which are hard to see here. I've added more texture to the headband, but its still not really showing up. Her brown sweater has some dark blue in it to add some depth and color to it. Her mouth is very evidently wet in the photo, so I'm hoping to convey that before I'm finished.



This last scan actually has more color to the face, but since I didn't mess with the colors so much on the scanner, you can't tell. I wanted to finish it all in one sitting, and I was sure I could get done before lunch, not wanting to clear it all up and risk not finishing again. So I pushed through and payed for it by gagging in the sink when I was done. TMI? Again I'm frustrated that all the color and detail isn't showing up, but it doesn't look bad.



I stopped trying to mess with the headband, it was getting too distracting from the rest of the picture. Anyway.