Those baby names again

Remember my post about possible baby names for #3? And my poll in the sidebar, that many of you have voted on?

(By the way, its glaringly obvious which option is most preferred.I'm tempted to name against it just because of the votes. But I'm obnoxious that way. I'm also wishing I never included the fourth option.)

Anyway, the other day I came across a link to this blog, which lists all of the "interesting" names that were given to babies in Rexburg, ID in 2008. Whatever your opinion on baby names, it is a fun read. Go ahead and click the link!

As for my opinion, before you go... I am not a fan of made-up names. I, however, do not agree that anyone will be made fun of because their name is spelled weird or it is 'fake'. Really, if the trend is for soooo many kids to have oddly spelled or made-up names, who is there to make fun of them? Everyone else's name will be just the same.

I also do not agree with everyone needing to have traditional names, i.e. Scott, Mike, Dave. So boring. Unique can be good, its just a matter of opinion on which ones are okay.

I guess I'm saying, yeah, go ahead and snort to yourself when you hear a name you disdain (I know I do) but don't go around mocking other people's choices at length. You never know the history behind their choice.

I have to say, there is a naming trend that I really abhor, but I can't say what it is because way too many of my acquaintances have named their children within this trend.
And I still like Cedar, Indigo and Rain, even though no one voted for them. At least they are real words! Haven't you ever heard of River and Leaf Phoenix? Even though Leaf changed his name to Joaquin later on.

Oh yeah. As for our baby. I've been thinking about middle names. In my family, we usually get the middle name from a family name, at least traditionally for the males. Elora's middle name was my great-grandma's middle name (we were fairly close in life), and Joshua's middle name is his daddy's first name. With this new boy, Joseph would like to use his own father's first name. While I have no interest in using my dad's name, I have to admit I don't like his dad's first name, and it doesn't go with any of our choices at all. My grandfathers' different names don't really fit either. But I can't decide if I'm willing to break with tradition and use my own name choice. Will he fill left out?
Hmmm.

Oh here's that link again, for the funny names.

Siblings: A Really Big Portrait

For the last little while, I've been working on a portrait thats a little different from the commissions I've had in the past. Not only does it have two faces in it, its also twice as big! This finished drawing will measure 16x20; I haven't done a drawing that big in at least five years!
There were a lot of things I was nervous about.

1. Firstly, a piece of paper this size is a lot more likely to be damaged while I'm working on it than the smaller portraits that I kept in a scrapbook in between drawing sessions. In fact, the first sheet I bought was actually crumpled by Joshua as we were leaving the art store, and I had to buy another one before we even left for home!
2. I had to find a new place to "hide" this one so my darling children didn't deface it in any way before it was finished; I also had to search for a new drawing surface on which to work and to store the drawing on. ( I used the surface of a big book previously, and my drawing boards from college all have paint on them, making them unsuitable for drawing on.) I ended up using a big white board Joseph has from his bachelor apartment; when I wasn't working I would place this facing the wall behind my bedroom door where the kids wouldn't see it.
3. The paper I'd been using up to now wasn't available in this large format. This meant I had to use a different texture as well as a different color than that to which I'd become accustomed. There is nothing wrong with a more textured paper-I just prefer the smooth. This was the least textured paper I could find in an apropriate color. The texture eats pencils much faster, and leaves more of the paper color showing through. This results in a softer style where the colors aren't quite as bold and the lines aren't as defined. Its much harder to do the fine details!
4. The size also poses an additional problem. For myself (I don't know about other artists) the bigger the drawing, the harder it is to keep everything to scale. Not to mention keeping the scale correct between the two different faces. I broke out my carbon paper again to make sure the measurements were the same between the faces and different parts, but during the course of the drawing as the details start playing out its easy to get off again.

Anyway.
Here is the first one. That's my white eraser. Oh, and I also had to use my camera instead of the scanner, so the colors aren't as true...though I did my best to fix them on the computer:



These are the children of one of Joseph's professors. I believe these kids are grown up or at least much older now. I absolutely loved the photo I had to work from, I don't know if its because of the "classic" look of the kids' clothes and hair, their adorable faces, or maybe the style of the photograph itself, but I thought it was great. I loved that it wasn't all washed out like many modern portraits you get today, and it used lighting techniques like we learned in my photography classes in college. Maybe they don't teach those to the workers at "kiddie kandids" these days?
This photo the lighting is weird, sorry. I think I hit auto correct on my computer program and it messed it up:


In the photo, the background is an indistinct blackish brown color. I started out with green, then slowly added in other colors to my background, as I wasn't sure what the color scheme was where this was displayed. The children's eyes seemed mostly green, but that too was indistinct.



I love this white ruffly shirt! On this yellow tinted paper my white shows up more than on the pink I'd been using, which was fortunate as there is a lot of white in their clothing. Of course some of the cream colors I have for doing hair don't show up at all, so I had to remember to just let the paper show through on those parts of their hair. I think this little boy looks like the kid from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I love that kid's face.



Everything seems to be working well, but for some reason their smiles don't look as bright or happy as they do in the photo reference. It could be anything from the shape of their cheeks to the shapes under their smiling eyes. I'm pretty sure it is not the mouth itself, because I carefully measured them before I started adding color. Hmmm. The little boy has the lightest hair, and I'm still struggling with how much pencil to use and still have it look finished but not overdone.
The color is pretty correct in this photo, finally:




At this point it looks like all I have left is the detail on the boys shirt. In actuality, I need to go back and find all the details I haven't finished on their faces and clothing. I am still trying to make their smiles better reflect their photo too. With two faces on this scale, its easy to forget what parts I was working on, and I keep finding things that I thought were finished but weren't quite done. I need to re-do the stripes on the boys shirt as well, the direction of the lines isn't quite right. In correcting my photo, I think I actually made this look better than it does, or at least brighter and more intense:



It may not look like I did as much between these last two, but it seems that it took the most time out of all the drawing sessions I did. I finished filling in the shirt and then tried to take care of all the details. Its still not perfect, but I don't want to overwork it so much that I totally mess it up:



If anyone would like me to do any portraits for them, I'd be happy to in the next few months before the baby is born!

Prayers

Yesterday, our neighbor's five year old little boy was struck by a car and killed just up our street at about 5:30 in the evening. He is the second of four children in the family. Several of the other neighborhood kids were nearby and witnessed the tragic event.
We were inside having dinner and family time when it happened. We noticed the police cars outside a while after the accident, but we assumed it was just a fender bender until someone came to our door and told us about it several hours later.
I'm sure it was just an accident, but several times a day we see cars zooming into our cul-de-sac to make u-turns, and they rarely slow down or look for children, despite all the signs and kids running around. It could very easily have been any of the other kids who are always outside playing. Even Elora and Josh have occasionally sneaked out for a few minutes before I notice, or have strayed away from me when we're all out playing together on our playground.
I don't know of any family blog this family might have, but I'm sure the family and others involved would appreciate any prayers or thoughts sent in their direction! And please, watch out for kids while you're driving.

Rear Window

I love living somewhere with big bright windows. Maybe some people wouldn't consider the windows in this place big, but compared to our first married apartment (which I hated) anything that fills a room with light is big!
I especially like that our bedrooms face south, letting in all the bright sunlight during the day. Being home....a lot....sometimes I find myself gazing out this window and daydreaming of different places.
For instance:

New York City
If I focus on this brick wall exterior, I am transported to an apartment in New York City (if I ignore the mountain). Joseph's basil plant is reminiscent of a hanging window planter, and I can almost hear the honking horns and people yelling down below. My sister and I used to say that someday I would live in a city apartment and have a neighbor named Mrs. Rosini who would make me spaghetti. Not that that's a stereotype or anything. I already did the city living (in Seattle) but its fun to picture what the single life in New York might be like.

Kansas
If I study this phone pole (which, by the way, I think would make a cool industrial style painting) I am transported to Kansas. Again, ignoring the mountain. The only time I've driven through KS was on our Christmas car trip, but I remember thinking how cold, windy, and desolate it seemed. The phone poles stretching off into the distance are so lonely mid-west to me. I'm glad I don't really live there.


Mountain Lodge


If I actually do focus on the beautiful mountains and the trees near our home, I can imagine living in a remote mountain lodge. Just outside a herd of deer grazes in the meadow, a gurgling stream rushes by the window, and a rustic wooden bridge spans its rushing expanse. It helps that the trees closest to my apartment are aspens, the same trees that dot the Cedar Mountain trails of my youth.


Beach House


Finally, for some reason the late afternoon light falling across this section of wall always makes me feel like I am in a beach house. I don't know if it is the simple color scheme, the white-washed walls, or the particular way the light falls, but whenever I encounter this afternoon scene, I am transported to the beach. Sometimes I'm reminded of the beach house in Oxnard where we had our family reunion in 1999. The room Kiera and I shared was also white with simple watercolor paintings on each wall. Other times, I think of places like Whidbey Island, where I once stayed at a beach house near a beautiful driftwood strewn beach. Either way, I can almost hear the lull of the waves crashing not too far away.

So, tell me. Am I the only one who does this? Or do other people imagine these types of things on a regular basis as well?