Figure Drawing Homework

I mentioned before that I was taking an art class, so I thought I would show you some of my homework for those who are interest, so probably no one ha ha. 

Anyway, the class has been awesome! It has attacked some of my weak points in my drawing. And there have been times I got frustrated and had to work my brain a little because this class is teaching me how to see the human body in a different way than I am used to. It's not about the anatomy and trying to represent it exactly, it's more about the mood, feeling, and the story and how to push the pose to communicate those things. 

I would say figure and head drawing is one of my strengths, many of my college professors told me that, but I feel like this class is pushing me to whole different level and I'm excited! This is one of the reasons I love art, you are always improving!

Anyway, here are some samples of my homework, this about a fourth of how many drawings I have done the last 2 weeks but this will give you an idea what the class is like. 

So every week a new lesson comes on the website and I watch about an hour lecture and watch the teacher draw from a "life model". Than so far our assignments have been 30 second poses for 20 minutes from a "life model" than 2 hour life drawings, where I have to go somewhere and basically people watch and draw them. Than we have to look at pictures or paintings and draw the poses. After that we turn it in, than my teacher sends me a video of his critique on my artwork and he draws over my stuff and shows me how I can do better! How awesome is that? So I have one-on-one lesson with a Pixar guy teaching me what they teach the workers there! It's FANTASTIC!

So this first picture is first week where we could only use line to show the movement or gesture, I didn't put too many up from the first lesson on here because it was a bunch of lines, so sorta boring to look at.

The Second week was shape, where we had to draw the shape and than draw over it. It was to help us simplify and to push it more. This week I was struggling at first, it probably sounds crazy but drawing simple shapes and pushing it was hard at first but I felt like I was starting to get it, that I re-drew some of the poses again to see if I could push it even more. 

Here are some life sketches I did when we were in SeaWorld the other day, since people move a lot most of these are ten seconds or less.

Some shape exercises using Norman Rockwell paintings as reference.

It's been fun having homework and learning once again. And I've forgotten how much I love to draw, especially the human body.

Aquatica-San Antonio

Here in SeaWorld, they also have a water park called Aquatica, like the one in Orlando. And this last week we decided to go as a family. The kids love the water park, we don't go as often as SeaWorld but we go about once a week, I actually like this one better than Orlando;... so I don't have any pictures of them in the water because I was afraid to get my camera wet, but we did get a couple.

We also went to SeaWorld to see the Azul show because I wanted to take some pictures because it's a visually striking show, but we didn't get close enough seats to have any really awesome pictures, o well, maybe next time. 

Than we went back to Aquatica to see the Polynesian Show, it was a lot of fun but we liked the one in Orlando better, but this one was free so we can't complain. Thomas just played in the sand the whole time.

Between the numbers they would have a lot of activities that the audience could be involved in, Dustin was very good to get involved. Thomas and Dustin did the limbo.

And here is Dustin learning to dance while holding Oliver.

It's been a lot of fun to have theme parks close by again, but we have been super busy, and it's just going to get busier the next little bit.
Dustin is heading back to the Dallas area tomorrow for a couple days because he's has a couple of teaching job interviews,  than we are going to get family pictures done the day he gets back, 4th of July, than Dustin's sister and her family are coming up for a few days and we will be hitting all the parks, than later that week my brother and his family are coming down.

It seems like life never settles down but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Oliver @ 5 Months

On Monday Oliver turned 5 months.

I feel like I just wrote his 4 months, it's going by very fast. 

Even though it's gone fast Oliver has made a lot of progress this past month, he is pretty mobile now. He rolls everywhere and can get to whatever he wants to now, and he's trying to scoot now to reach things. My guess he will be crawling a lot earlier than Thomas.

He really likes SeaWorld, giving hugs and kisses. He's my cuddly baby and I love it. He's pretty good about playing by himself now on the floor, where as in the past I had to hold him all the time.

And he gives you the sweetest smiles that just melt your heart!

So while I was taking pictures of Oliver, Thomas wanted to join in, which is funny because he usually hates when I tell him to sit to take a picture, but I was more than happy to take pictures of his crazy, morning hair; and to practice with my new lens I'm still figuring out, but I love it!

Hard Week

Last week was really hard. I was so glad when Sunday came around because it was that hard, I usually don't  wish my life away but I couldn't wait till last week ended. Motherhood can be really hard, and last week was a good example why motherhood is hard, and what's funny is now I can't remember everything that happened, another thing that I think happens in motherhood, forgetting the bad parts; that's why we give birth more than once.

I think part of the reason it was hard was because I started my online art class, while working on art commissions, and last minute someone asked me to substitute teach Relief Society (which I have never done before)  so I was trying get that stuff done at night when it seemed like almost every night some type of disaster happened. 

To give you an idea, one night Thomas was throwing up, luckily Dustin took care of that one because I'm usually feeding Oliver at nights. This past week Oliver has been waking up more and not going back to sleep so that makes long nights. One night when the missionaries were over, and I was so tired that night, Thomas twisted his ankle so he was crying and limping while I was trying to get dinner done, than he asked if I would put "superman" on his foot, which is just lavender oil, I've been using that whenever he got ant bites and we have called it "superman" for some reason, and he wanted to hold the bottle, so not thinking about it I let him hold it, and next thing I knew he open it and spilled it all over him and the couch, so again, not thinking, I took the empty bottle and was trying to finish dinner and left him and a few minutes later he was screaming in pain and I quickly realized he rubbed his eyes with his hand that had a bunch of oil on it, so I was rushing him in the bathroom trying to get it washed out, and had Dustin and the missionaries finish the dinner. 

Last week Dustin worked all closing shifts, so I would make dinner and put the kids to bed by myself, and clean up, and I have to time it just right before the melt downs happen, and the boys seem to like to have them at the same time. So that wore me out, and I would want to relax afterwards but had to work on the stuff I mentioned earlier. And Dustin's day off he helped someone in our ward half the day with their yard, which I'm grateful to have an amazing husband that does that, but I do cherish his days off because I can get a little break, and this last week I didn't. 

Anyway, that wasn't half of what happened this week, but like I said I can't remember everything but it seemed everyday something dramatic happened with the kids, and I remember Dustin and I traded taking care of the kids a lot so one person could take a half hour nap so we could function for the rest of the day. 

Anyway, I feel like I'm complaining, but really it was a hard week and hopefully this week will go smoother, but here are some snapshots of some good times this past week:

Some Projects

Here are some pictures of some projects I've been working on our apartment, I'm not done but I probably won't do too much more since we are only here for a few months, once we are more settled at a place I will probably finish more but till now here are some.

THOMAS' BEDROOM:

This is Thomas's room, since he's a pretty big super hero fan  I decided to do avengers for the theme. At the moment I'm working on a huge painting  of captain America to put on this wall, but until than we have the wall stickers. Than for the opposite wall I made three pictures of some superhero symbols that I made on illustrator and photoshop, they were super easy and Thomas, and Dustin..., think they are pretty cool.  I got the frames at Hobby Lobby for $6 dollars each, so it was super cheap. I also made the temple print on illustrator and photoshop as well, I got the idea from Pinterest. Gotta love Pinterest.

THE KID'S BATHROOM:
I was originally going to do super hero theme in the bathroom as well, but it turned out to be a jungle theme instead. And my mother-in-law gave me the great idea of hanging my Jungle Book piece in there, and it worked out perfect. Thomas loves that painting, he says "It's mommy's" and sometimes "It's Thomas" referring to Mogli;  the funny thing is I used Thomas as a reference so he's kinda right.
I also made the "Dream Big" print as well, gotta love photoshop, it's seriously my best friend.

THE KITCHEN TABLE:
Since we are here for a little while we only have a few things. We purchased this table at Goodwill for $20 and I decided to paint it turquoise to go with some pillows in our living room couch, and figured if it turned out horrible I wouldn't cry over it. So here is the before and after pictures, I like the blue a lot better. As of right now we don't have any picture in the dinning room wall but if we do end up keeping the table once we settle somewhere I think I'm going to purchase some oil paint and a canvas and paint a still life to go with it. But till now, we just have a blank wall. Also do you love our lime chairs? ha ha I was waiting to find some cheap chairs I could repaint white or something to go with our table and Dustin got tired not having chairs and bought these bad boys because they were in the clearance section in Target, and when I saw them I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep them, hence the tags still hanging on them, but since we have used them everyday the past three weeks, I guess we are keeping them until I find something else. So the home decor isn't quite finished or how I want it but it's a working progress.