40 Black and White Balloons

Dennis said he was going to take me out for my birthday so we left the house around 5:30pm and ended up running all sorts of errands.  Finally after about an hour and barely making it to Payson, Dennis told me that we were needed at home.  My spidey-scences kind of kicked in at that point and I thought that the kids must be putting something together for me. Kind of sweet, right.  I had no idea the scale and preparation that was put into it.  I walked through the door and there were so many people there!!  It totally took me by surprise!  All my brothers and their families were there, my in-laws and a couple of the Marker families, neighbors, and even a few of my girls from YW's.  It was all very touching.  Dennis orchestrated everything and our neighbor stored all the supplies at her house.  During the day the girls went over to her house to make birthday cards, but they were really working on a fun birthday poster. There were streamers and black and white balloons all over the house. I was told that there were 40 of them.  There was pizza, two cakes and ice cream! It was all very sweet! 

Activity Days Talent Show

At Afton's last Activity Days activity the girls and I went to watch her perform at the Talent Show.  She chose to sing a song that we have been working on here at home for a couple weeks.  She did a great job.  Love watching this girl perform.  She has some fun leaders.  Sister Bates and Sister Ashmore. She likes going and has fun with the other girls.

Khora's Tumbling Session Winter -2015

Khora has finished the winter session in tumbling already.  This one went by really fast.  It was a monumental one for her because she was able to accomplish a couple of her personal goals during this session. 1) Do a backhand spring all by herself on the floor. 2) Do an aerial all by herself.

Khora just loves tumbling and gets so excited to go to each class and she loves her coach!!

Way to go Khora!!

Homework - half way point

I am about half way done with my drawing class.  I've turned in 5 drawings so far. One was just a bunch of thumbnail sketches so I didn't include it here.

When we turn in our homework we hang it on the display board in front of the whole class and everyone including the teacher gets to comment on it. -Yes it is a little intimidating.

1. This was the first one I did.  We took a 3x3 clip out of a magazine and recreated it 9x9 only using contour lines, no shading allowed. Everything that can be represented by a line should be. It was graded on how well it met the criteria for the assignment, not necessarily on our skill level.

2. Perspective Drawing

For this assignment we found a spot in the building to draw a point perspective scene. We spent 2 weeks there. I also took photos of this view and worked on it at home. Dennis saved me on this one.  All of his suggestions were the teachers favorite things about it. I got so frustrated with this one. After the first day I actually took it home and started it completely over because the perspective point was too centered.

3. The Egg 

I took a picture of it with my little purse camera before I turned it in this time. We have been learning about light and value representations (shading). Our assignment was to draw a white egg 9x12 with the egg 8 inches long. We were to focus on representing the values created from a mixed light source. 

photo I took to help me set up my drawing

my rendering

To prepare for this one I actually googled "how to draw an egg", and I found a mathematical way to do it. My free hand skills are very raw. I like using my ruler and my teacher is a very technical teacher so it helps. I think this is what gave me the edge I needed this time because the rest of the class drew it freehand, which I must say, to the credit of some in there, was totally amazing!!  I also have a great tutor who helps me see what I need to adjust. Thanks Dennis!

I have been learning so much.  It is the most frustrating and most rewarding class so far. I'm still very slow, awkward with the pencil, and very intimidated, but I'm getting better.

*UPDATE

4. More with Value and Contrast

We picked the subject, set up the lighting and composed this one ourselves. I had a ton of fun with this and probably put in more hours on it than I wanted to, but I am pretty happy with the results. 

Drawing Sketchpad

Baring a large part of myself by sharing what's in my drawing sketch pad. These are all practice from in class lessons usually from something that was set up in the room. There are a few weeks missing, but this is basically it.

Week 1 part 1

First day of class he puts this tricycle in the middle of the room on the platform and says draw it! Yeah, panic attack right there.  No help, no suggestions . . .nothing, just go at it.  Longest class period of my life!! I was so embarrassed! Heaven help me I was probably 20 different shades of red, but I muscled through it. When he just couldn't stand it anymore. . . I told him not to watch me too much or it would drive him crazy . . he finally gave us 4 tips to start any drawing.

Week 1 part 2

 This was the same day after the tricycle attempt.  Contour lines, no shading.  Much better result but still very frustrating! It's all about learning to see negative space, interpretation of angles, horizontal and vertical relationships, and visual measurements - the 4 tips from the 1st part of the day.

Week 2

 Another exercise on learning to see shapes, lines, and relationships. It's frustrating when my hand won't do what my eyes see. I'm very slow so I didn't get it finished during the class period.

Week 6

 Learned how to draw a circle.  I had so much fun with this one and was really disappointed when we didn't spend long on it.  We moved on to composition using a view finder . . . which I enjoy because of my photography experience, but creating these timed sketches was pure torture! I felt like a 2 year old. That is what my camera is for!!

week 7

 And then . . . light, shading and value. I actually got to use a couple of my other tools instead of just my small pencil and eraser.  Dark and hard scaled pencils, molding eraser and blender. This was a really fun class because the results are amazing! It was also reinforced by what I am learning in my other class. The intentional use of perspective and value in art happens during the 15th century.

week 8

 We worked on creating value with our shading and learned some techniques.  I loved this! It's all coming together now.  We use contour lines to sketch out our drawing first then add the value.  The teacher does occasionally burst out into fits of laughter when he sees what I have done. . . the neck on the smaller bottle resembled a crazy mirror at the carnival before he intervened. (He is actually very nice about it.)

Piano Festival

On Saturday Jacob performed in the Santaquin Piano Festival.  They usually do this a couple times a year.

Living Legends

Saturday Dennis and I enjoyed a very nice Valentines date together.  I thought we were going to a BYU basketball game. . . until Dennis told me it would be Sunday dress. . then I had my suspicions. After we got in the car he pulled out the tickets. They were for a BYU cultural dance performance called Living Legends at the Conference Center theater. The performance was a journey through seasons of Promise, Plenty, Prosperity, War and Rebirth with dancers from Polynesian, Latin American, and Native American cultures. I was so impressed with all of it, the costumes, the choreography, the talent. . . it was all so fabulous! My favorite was the New Zealand haka and poi dances as well as the North American Hoop Dance. I enjoyed the cultural diversity, the energy and the spirit that they put into it.  For their closing number they all sang I am a Child of God. Amazing!   Much better than a game that BYU won by about 30pts.

We got there pretty early so this picture doesn't show how full it was by the time it started.  We had amazing seats!