Josh's 8yr old pictures!

 

Last weekend we were in Rapid City running some errands, and we went to the Art Ally to take Josh's 8yr old pictures, since his birthday is just a week or so away. He and I were both excited about the idea, and we got some fun pictures. There are a lot of bright colors and cool artwork, and unlike most graffitied places, there was no profanity on the walls that I could see. 

The only problems were 

A. the time of day led to some bad lighting in some places, 

B. the bright light made Josh's eyes hurt and water so he had a hard time smiling for his pictures, and C. after about twenty minutes, one of the kids had to go to the bathroom really bad so we had to leave in a hurry, and I didn't get to make sure I had the shots I wanted. So sad. But that's how it always goes! (Also, I wish Josh had worn different pants. For some reason these ones just really bothered me.)

 As I mentioned, Josh had a hard time because his eyes started watering the instant we entered the bright alleyway, I think it had a lot to do with the light reflecting off of all the bright surfaces. We got several pictures where he was in a great spot, it was all in focus, but he looked like he was about to cry! See:

A.

Despite the fact I would have liked more time to get a perfect photo, I'm having a real hard time deciding which of all the photos I like best. In this group, I like the strong colors, and the pose. By the way, I added a few inches to his pants in photoshop, but decided it was too much trouble for most of the other photos:

B.

In this group, I like the framing of the window, the strong pose in the upper right, and also the bottom right seated one. Although in that one he kind of looks like he's going to sneeze!

C.

 

 In the following group,  I love the brightness, and the smiley face on the wall sticking out its tongue: it really reflects Josh's personality. I like the top left best, maybe. Also, I like how there's a lot of space so if I need to crop it for different photo sizes, it'll still probably look good. In the bottom right photo, I had taken several shots in front of this red canvas, and the others were all centered better, but this is the only one where he was smiling and it was all in focus. Blah.

D.

 

 This red door frame was cool, and I like the one where the pink heart on the door is perfectly framed around Josh's head, in the top right photo. However, that photo was originally shot really dark, and I had to lighten it a lot on the computer, which means it will look really fuzzy and pixelated if I print it any bigger than maybe a 5x7. I wish I could take that picture over again! As for the bottom right photo I really love the background and composition, but Josh's pants just look weird, don't you think?

E.

 We took some photos on a metal staircase that I thought looked neat, but Josh was worried about falling down because it seemed so rickety. Also, the light was a little bright there! We also found a cool doorway with scraps of wallpaper all over it. I wish we had more time there as well, because I know I could've taken a few nicer picture, but out of all those I took, this might be the best standing one.

F.






















 Here are a few more shots in that doorway. I really liked his face in the sitting ones, but I didn't notice till later that his shirt was all bunched up and his pants were looking funny. I cropped the top right one in to see how it looked without his pants, but it might be cropped too much. (Especially considering an 8x10 would require even more cropping off the bottom or top.) I like his face in these standing ones to, but the angle is just weird.

G.
























 Finally, here are some horizontal pictures, and I really like all of these. I just wish the light was a little better in the bottom photo. What do you think? Do you have a favorite?
 H.



































Click on the pictures to see them bigger, if you'd like.

The month of May

The month of May, full of crazy weather, the end of the school year, graduations, powwows and adventure!
First we had a day of snow and a blizzard that cancelled school.

 



 

That Saturday the weather was fine and dry,

 

but the next week it was raining so they cancelled school for the bad roads. The rain yielded some fun outside adventures though, because it meant all the toads were going to come out! One morning, Elora and Josh and I went on a walk around our house and  found three toads (small medium and large) as well as a cool snake!

small toad

giant toad

medium toad

another view of the small toad

our friend the snake

All the nooks and crannies of the rolling hills were filled with water, creating an exciting new landscape. Of course, this meant lots of mud too.


















































































May also means the Drive In restaurant in Faith is open for the summer, so we went up that  evening to enjoy dinner together.

































(River is available to advertise other businesses as well.)

The end of May included graduation for Jonah and a powwow to mark the end of the school year. Jonah was thrilled to get dressed up for his program, though they don't really do a show like the kindergarten programs in Utah. They just kind of walk up and get their awards and diploma, then line up to shake hands with everyone. I was sad they didn't do a little bit more.













































































I did ask Jonah about what they were supposed to say in the part that was cut from their program, and he did a cute little video with me.

For the powwow, Elora got to do hoop dancing one more time this year. At their school, all the third and fourth grade girls have the opportunity to be on the hoop dancing team. They only ever practiced once,in October,  and have performed four or five times this year. I wish they would have practiced more because Elora really likes it, but has a hard time knowing which formations they're doing next, while the other girls may have been watching the hoop dancers for years. So yeah, she's not that good at it, but she enjoys it!

 

 

At this powwow, she was sad because her shoe came off in the middle of the performance, so it really threw her off. River had fun at her first powwow too.

That one time there were buffalo

Remember that time the buffalo got out? And went right by our house? And before that they almost ran through a fence straight to where I was standing with the baby and Eli? Well, if you don't remember, I've got these short videos to prove it. They're all pretty short,don't worry!

The first one shows the buffalo being sorta routed by a truck, the second continues their run from that truck, the third briefly shows them run by our house, and the fourth is the buffalo safely back in a pen while they close the fence for them. 

Blanket Fort

If you're on facebook, you've probably seen the drawing I recently completed, of the kids all building a blanket fort in their bedroom. The drawing is 11x14", created in marker, and took something like three weeks to complete, if you count all the days I couldn't work on it.

 

There were a lot of things that gave me the idea for the picture. First, I had been thinking for a long time that I wanted to do some kind of picture set in their room, because I've always liked how the three rungs on the bunk bed are mirrored in the three shelves on the bookcase. I don't know why, but I stare at it every time I'm singing to them at bedtime.
Secondly, I have been trying to think of a drawing that could include the baby. I had so much fun doing the drawing of all the kids in the forest last spring, and I wanted to draw another with all the kids included.



















After Eli was born, I did a picture that included him, but it was more of a token presence, as he was so far away. It was one of the first few drawings I did with markers and people. Can you spot baby Eli in the picture? Yeah, you'll probably have to click on it to see it larger.

Anyway. I'd been thinking of doing a drawing with all the kids gathered around the baby looking at her, but it didn't seem too exciting, and I had no setting in my head of where it could be. Outside? around a chair? Who knows.
Then one  day, shortly after we had bought the second bunk bed, the kids made a cool fort. I didn't actually see them playing in it, but I looked into the room at the aftermath, and thought it was mesmerizing how the light came through the blankets and it all flowed together. I instantly knew this would make a cool picture, so I grabbed my camera to capture the basic idea of it. It doesn't exactly look like my drawing, but this is what I saw:

I knew I wanted to include the yellow blanket and the curtains, as I loved the light shining through them. I also knew the big blanket draped across the top of the room had the coolest organic shape that could pull the whole thing together, if I drew it right.
I drew several basic drawings to decide where I wanted the kids to be in the picture, and I looked up several anime-type marker drawings of people online to get ideas. When I started, the baby was going to be in the foreground with the kid in the blanket, but then I realized she'd work best in the chair as I could craft all of the lines and the light to draw the viewer's attention to that spot.
I intentionally drew the bars on the beds at odd slants, for more energy in the picture, and because I know I get bored drawing a picture if I'm too hung up on making angles and lines perfectly accurate, and it becomes a chore rather than something fun.
The hardest thing to decide was the designs on the blankets. I wanted a variety of blanket types, not just the ones we really have but some other cool things like rag quilts. I liked the idea of lots of different patterns, but I didn't want there to be too much chaos that drew your eye away from the baby and the light from the window.
I pictured the drawing having dark colors all around, then a light center, but I didn't want it all to be blue, so I gambled with other colors. One thing I discovered was that I really need to get a light purple, I wanted it for so many things. The purple that is there is a dark color with white drawn over the top of it.
The last things I completed were the floor and the blanket across the top of the drawing. I had decided earlier that the top quilt would be a rag quilt, but I was hesitant on choosing the colors. I didn't like the designs on the real blanket, and I'd already used tons of blue. I think it was our dinner mats that inspired me to use the colors I did! They have colorful fruit on them. I figured that combination: blue, yellow, green, and orange- could help unite the warm colors around the chair, and the cool colors around the picture edges.
At first, it was way too bright, drawing too much attention from everything else. Then I put gray over the closest part of the blanket, but it made it look dull and flat, rather than darker. (And it did need to be dark since the light is directly behind it). Finally, I used some darker shades of the colors combined with the gray on that closest part of the blanket, leaving the blanket bits closer to the window the bright simple colors I had started with, to add some dimension.
For the floor, I decided to go with brown wood because it was a warm neutral color for the center of the drawing, and using the real room's blue carpet would have been overkill on the blue! The toys on the floor were last minute additions, because really, what kids room has a clean floor while the kids are there? I used some of the real toys that they have-along with some fictional blocks- because the colors were perfect for what I wanted.
At the last minute, I added a bunch of green to the walls so it wasn't just blue, and this also helped unite all the details.

There area  few things I don't like about this drawing, or would change if I drew it differently. For instance, the only face I really like is Joshua's in the chair. It's like I have a mental block for drawing faces if they're going to be marker. It doesn't help that I don't think I have the variety of skin colors I really need to do a smooth skin depiction.
But overall, I like this drawing a lot!