Art Homework

So here is some of my art homework from my online class, and I mean some... because I have a lot of drawings from this class; it's been so great drawing this much again, it's been very therapeutic for me while kicking my little behind at the same time. I wanted to show some of the homework because when I have mentioned to people I'm taking a class online they think it's an easy class with not that much work and I can do it my own time line, but it's far from that, I have hard assignments, I have dead lines, I have hour long lectures, I get video critiques, I research a lot, and I draw from life while wrestling with two kids. I have to rethink how I see the body while I work on my assignments that I have to turn off my music or movies to fully concentrate, when I usually watch a movie or two while working on art commissions, so it's been taking a lot of concentration and my drawings don't even look half as awesome as my teacher... somewhat frustrating, that's why he works at pixar and I don't ha ha. 

Anyway, so here are some of my home work this past month. These aren't finish drawings so they don't look so great, they are just exercises to help us push our drawings. This one we had to draw silhouettes of the figure, and we were to focus on visual communication, and if need to change positions of limbs or the whole body itself so you can read the silhouette better and know what's going on. Looking back on some of these assignments I see how bad I was on  some of them.

For this week we had to focus on space, or perspective so things don't look flat on the page, I really didn't execute that very well that week, ha ha now looking back on these, but for half of the assignment we had to draw with our subordinate hand, so that explains the squiggly lines. This first page was from life with my left hand.

This week was exaggeration, I'm getting better but I still play it "safe" with my drawings. One day I will get it....

Also that week we had to pick an animal to start studying so we knew the anatomy so well that we could short hand it, in other words know it so well that we could draw it in any position or angle and know it as well as the human body. So here are some of my deer studies.

This last assignment we had to look at the life model video and draw the model as the animal we were studying. And it couldn't look like a human pose, but how the animal would naturally would pose, if that makes sense... so no Mickey Mouse, where it's a mouse carrying a brief case like a human, but like Ratatouille where they move like a rat.

Anyway, super hard, I don't think I concentrated so hard on an assignment before. So the teacher basically did some elephant sketches while he watched the model than after 20 minutes he said it was our turn, ha ha I was pretty pathetic in 20 minutes I had 2 drawings and they didn't look like deer they looked look like a person in a deer costume, I just about died. I wondered what I was going to do since the homework was due in a few days, we had no internet for a week, so I didn't have a week and half like most assignments, so this last week I have been up very late, drawing, drawing, drawing, failing, drawing, drawing, failing again, watched some Bambi for inspiration, and finally things started clicking and finally my drawings started to look like deer. They are far from perfect but I'm proud of my deer drawings because earlier this week I couldn't do this, some of them still look too human but o well I'm still learning. 

That's what I love about art, it's such a humbling and spiritual experience. There have been so many times in college where we would have an assignment and I wouldn't know how I was going to do it, it seemed impossible but by the end of the week I produce the thing I thought I couldn't do. With hard work and prayer all things are possible. Many times I have prayed for help in my art, this week I did, and the Lord blessed me, I still had to work hard, I drew late hours of the night but I did it! So yes, I'm proud of these deers, but we will see if I will still be proud of them after my critique from my teacher.

Also this week, Thomas has been drawing as well. He blows my mind how awesome he is, this is a self portrait he did the other day, and the Harry Potter one I showed on Facebook already but he did another one, the face was way better but this one had the full body, anyway I'm curious to see if he will keep it up.

Anyway, probably boring post to most of you, so if you read all of it awesome!

Oliver @ 7 Months

 

This little cutie turned 7 months last week!

He's getting so big and gets cuter and cuter. He truly brightens my day with his smile. He is one happy baby and a huge momma's boy, and I'm loving it, I get plenty of cuddles during the day. He's also likes to get into everything and he gets to places fast so that keeps me busy. He loves to wrestle with Thomas and doesn't realize he is the little one, but I don't think that will be the case always since he's getting so big. 

He loves eating, swimming, baths, going on walks, and giving kisses. We love him so much and been having fun watching him grow.

A Little Catch Up

I'm pretty behind on blogging... we have been pretty busy and not having internet for a week, it was bound to happen. 

We moved in to our new place last Saturday and we are liking it so far. I wasn't so sure first when Dustin told me that there was a bullet hole on our door, O my goodness... I can't wait till we have our own home. The place is older but it's spacious and perfect for our little family. I love our porch it's huge and I want to buy a table and chairs so we can eat out there for dinners as for now we just been drawing over it with sidewalk chalk. I also love the exterior of our apartments I love red brick with greenery everywhere, and we live right on a golf course with ponds and fountains so we are happy here even though it's not perfect.

Some little updates:

Dustin's first day teaching is tomorrow, he's pretty nervous but he will do great, He's been working really hard. This last week I didn't see him much, he was gone sun up to sun down trying to get everything ready. He substituted at the Melissa school district last year so a lot of the kids already know him, that when they saw that he was the new art teacher and the "meet the teacher" nigh they got all excited and said "It's Mr Clark!!! You're my new art teacher?" He's teaching 4th-8th so it's a pretty big range. I'm excited that we are involved with Melissa it really reminds me of my high school growing up, small town feel and they had a staff BBQ this last week and we started it with a prayer, one of the many reasons why I love Texas. I don't know if we will end up here for many years to come but I would be ok raising my kids here it's a very family, religious place.

Than Thomas is just enjoying being a typical 2 year old. He loves visiting Dustin's parents and grandparents especially now that they have a dog around. Which has been perfect since I'm one of those cruel people who don't love animals and probably will never let my kids own one, so this way Thomas gets to play and walk a dog and I don't have to take care of it. He also loves swimming, drawing, and wrestling like any typical boy.

Oliver has been keeping me busy. He gets to EVERYTHING and is always on the move. He loves cords and anything I don't want him to get into so it's been hard getting things done. He loves to eat. So far he's liked everything I have given him, but I would say watermelon has been his favorite. He also just turned 7 months this last week so I need to take some pictures.

As for me I have been busy trying to unpack AGAIN. We have moved so much since we have been married especially this year, just within a year we have moved 4 times! So I'm glad we are staying at one place for at least a year! Also I have been busy with my art class, I wish I could spend more time with my homework but life has been crazy. I have been running getting ready for my first half marathon but since we have been back in the Dallas area I haven't ran that much like once a week so hopefully once life starts settling down I can start training. Also I finally got my flute from Rexburg and started practicing again after 3 years! And boy, am I rusty but it feels good to play again. I'm planning to join the community orchestra next year after I have practiced a bit because I want to keep up with the flute. 

Anyway, a quick update and hopefully in a few days I can catch up on the blog.

Family Pictures

You probably already seen these on face book, but while we were in San Antonio we got some family pictures at the River Walk, which I'm so glad we did because they turned out great and the River Walk was one of my favorite things in San Antonio. 

Snapshots of July

It's been a while since I have blogged but we have been super busy. We are now back in the Dallas area, and we have been for almost 2 weeks now, and we have been staying with Dustin's parents until we can move into our new apartment this coming week, so we have been in limbo for a while and we are excited to not be living in a suitcase. 

Dustin's been busy getting ready for the new school year, going to meetings, getting his classes ready... it's been fun having the feeling "back to school" around the house, and he's going to be an awesome teacher, when the kids heard that Mr. Clark is the new art teacher they were excited (he substitute last school year) so he's already a popular teacher. As for me,  I've been chasing the boys around, working on my art class and learning a ton, having art and photography jobs on the side. So we haven't had much down time. Thomas misses SeaWorld and asks to see the whales everyday, it breaks my heart, as you might have noticed I have a soft spot for SeaWorld, but he likes having his grandparents around and has been watching a lot of Finding Nemo. Oliver is on the move, he is army crawling all over so nothing is safe anymore, and he has two bottom teeth that he likes to use while nursing... not so fun in my part. 

Since I haven't blogged in a while and I have taken pictures as usual this last month I decided to pick a few snap shots to show you what's been going on with the Clark family.

1. Oliver and Thomas always have a great time together and are already wrestling.

2. One of Oliver's first attempts of baby food {gotta love that face}

3. My 4th of July cake, trying to be fancy. Lately I have been wanting to photograph food for some reason.

4. Thomas falling asleep "reading" a book, LOVE THAT! I hope to see that more when he is older. 

5. Thomas can make pretty funny expressive faces, this is one of many faces he makes.

6. Reading time at night is one of my favorites.

7. Dustin doing a cookie monster impression while reading a book. I married a great guy.

8. Going on walks and feeding the ducks.

9. Oliver loving baby food, he gets so excited when it's time to eat!