Artwork Bragging...

This post has been in my drafts for quite some time.  My son is such a talented young artist.  He never ceases to amaze me with his artwork.  He works diligently on each piece and is his own worst critic.  I am always in awe of what he produces.  He is legally blind in his right eye.  He was diagnosed with amblyopia at eight years old.  By that time he was too old for the traditional treatments. The late diagnosis was from lack of symptoms, his eye did not fall into the corner as most do, and he had excellent depth perception.  His eye doctor is amazed at his lack of symptoms and what he can create.

He works on a variety of different art projects.

I know I am biased because he is my son but I think his artwork is amazing.  Although he has  taken some art classes, he is mostly self taught, which amazes me even more.

This is a portrait of Shia Labeouf

I believe he did this a year ago

He completed this rose recently

The shading in the petals makes it appear so realistic

This is one of his largest pieces.  It is a comic book character

He is farther along in this now and it is wonderfully rich in color and texture.  I look forward to sharing the finished piece.

This is Cair Paravel done a couple of years ago

Portrait done this summer if Noah Wyle from the show Falling Skies

The caricatures below are quick sketches of DC Comic characters.

All of the following pieces are for sale, $7 each, if you are interested.

We appreciate any feedback and support.  I would love to share your comments and encouragement with him.  Thank you for letting me brag on about my son's awesome talent.  It does this mama's heart some good to share his talent with you.

I'm linking to these fabulous parties.

Random Gibberish

On my nightstand:

I am loving this book and I've just started.  It draws you in from the very first page. It is not a book you can read quickly.  You will be compelled to reread words, sentences and paragraphs over and over again, so they may penetrate and sink into your soul.  I can not say enough about this amazing book.  Ann's writing is riveting.  

 One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp

Following Ann's book I have this on my list.  It is a recommendation from one of Ann's posts. 

 This has been on my to read list for some time.  I am hoping to fit it in this summer.

 I have been reading this off and on~trying to finish is before the new school year.  There are so many amazing ideas in this book.  Love it.

 This one is for my daughter~she would like me to sew her some skirts. She has a hard time finding skirts that are not too short or too long.  So she is enlisting my help.  She has more confidence in my sewing ability than I do.

 I am not a big fan of fleece but this book may change my mind.  It has some great patterns and ideas.  I requested it from our library but I'm not sure if I will give fleece a try.  

I made this for my hubby for Father's Day.  He loves Snickers.  I first saw it on Pinterest.  I do not have an account but it doesn't keep me from visiting.  I haven't jumped into the Pinterest pool because I do not have a Twitter or Facebook account.  I know~you all think I'm living under a rock but I have my reasons.  One of them is that I do not want to be sucked into the internet and not live.  I could definitely see that happening with me.  So for now I just peek in.

 I want to share a little more of my son's art work.  He works on his drawings everyday and he has new projects all the time.  He designates different sketch books for different interests.  

This is a picture he drew of a Sonic video game character.

Pencil first then outlined with marker.

 A scene from the Smallville tv show.

 Some layouts for one of his Sonic comic books.  He has written and illustrated quite a few of his own.  We have sent one in to Archie comics.  He doesn't like to send his original copies away so now I must email them to the company.

 Recently, he has started drawing portraits.  I am completely amazed by the talent he has.  He has had some formal art lessons but not in depth.  He is self taught.  He is also legally blind in his right eye.  It is so astounding that he can do such a impressive job.  This portrait is a singer from the band Metric, which he loves.  He drew it while watching a video of them singing.

Thank you for letting me brag. I am a proud mama of two amazing kids, who are both bigger than me. Although they've grown they'll always be my babies in my heart.

In the Garden

Our garden is a happy place right now.  It has been hard work but I love every minute of it.

Here we have some gourd seedlings.  I hope to have some gourds running out of this planter by autumn.

These are Amish melon seedlings.  They are heirloom seeds.  Last year they did not do well, or maybe I did not do well.  Hoping for some yummy melons this year. 

 Our strawberry bed.  It runs over, and everywhere they runners can.  Looking forward to yummy strawberries from our garden.  They are a million times sweeter and juicier than anything you buy at the market.

When I went out this afternoon to snap some photos of the garden I noticed this little guy was trapped inside the garden. Hubby built a structure out of PVC and wrapped it in chicken wire to keep pests out of the garden.  Before that anything I planted was destroyed by squirrels and rabbits.  Even with the dogs chasing them, they would still come back.  Perseverance, I suppose.

I am not sure how the birds manage to get in but every once in a while they do and get so flustered they can not get out. I opened the door so he could fly out and he can't seem to find it.

 Here are the plants.  I have four varieties of tomatoes, celery, peppers, kale, squash, cucumbers, and romaine lettuce.

 Poor little guy is still there.

 He's too upset to find his way out.

 It is not helping him to know that his little friend is calling to him from the bushes, on the other side of the fence.

I hope he finds his way out soon.  I don't think he'll want to come near this garden again.  It did not help when our husky decided she would chase it around the outside of the garden, further frustrating and scaring this little guy.

I wanted to share some of my son's artwork with you here.  It has been a long time since I've shared something he's drawn but he is always working on a picture.  He is currently drawing and creating a story for a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book. This will be his third one.  We have submitted one of his creations to the company and hope to hear some response soon.  He is so talented.  Sorry to brag~but he's great.  He never ceases to amaze me with his work, especially because he is legally blind in his right eye.  He has amazing perspective.

He also takes amazing photos.  He took these themselves and says he would love to have a camera that he could really take amazing shots with.  We will have to be looking for one for him to learn on.

The color is amazing~

Thank you for letting a mama brag.

Have a super weekend.

Linking to:

39 Things Before 39

I am a little late for this.  I wanted to participate with Chrissie Grace in Make Some Art Monday.  Yesterday turned out to be so busy and I never made it here to post.  I don't think I stopped running the entire day.  My feet hit the floor first thing in the morning and did not stop until I collapsed into bed late last night.  Even though it is late I didn't want to miss out on this great idea.

Here is my little art work~

Part one

Part two

Thirty-eight is creeping up on me very quickly.  I did not want to start a list that would need to be completed in four months so my goal is to complete everything on the list by 39.  I needed the extra time.  Too much pressure thinking of completing everything with just four months.

My List~

1.  Get a daily exercise routine and stick to it. ~Unfortunately I always start this but I never stick to it.  I really want to try and stay on track.

2.  Plan and extend our heirloom vegetable garden. ~ I grew some things from seed this past summer.  I had and still have a lot to learn.  I hope to double the size of the garden this year.

3.  Save some of my own heirloom seeds.  I think I will start with something easy like tomatoes or beans.

4.  Attempt to can veggies from our garden.

5.  Make my own jams and jellies.

6.  Sew my own purses-lots of learning needed for this.  I do have a ton of ideas floating around in my head.

7.  Work out on the elliptical faithfully for 20 minutes or more, increasing my distance.

8.  Take more pictures, capture more moments, have my camera with me always.

9.  Put our pictures into albums - I already have the albums I like picked out.

10.  Make a quilt~I have always wanted to but have chickened out.

11.  Crochet or knit my first sweater.  ~  I have made many things but have never been brave enough to try a sweater.  Time to overcome that.

12.  Spend more time with God-really seeking what He has planned for me.

13.  Volunteer as a family.

14.  Design and sew something-no matter how simple.

15.  Open my own Etsy shop.~  Always been a bit of a chicken about just jumping in and doing it.

16.  Host a nice dinner with friends.  An elegant "wow" dinner.

17.  Read the classics. ~  From Dickens to Austen and anything in between.

18.  Make one thing from each of my craft books.

19. Make my own pie crust from scratch. ~  I have always just relied on Pillsbury.

20.  Go hiking with the kids.

21.  Start planning our weekly menus.

22.  Start creating more of my own things. ~ Just let it happen with out having to think too much about it.  No analyzing~just creating.

23. Have enough market bags to do away with plastic shopping bags.

24.  Go on a sleigh ride if it snows this year.~This is something I have always wanted to do.  The years that finances allowed it there wasn't any snow.  The years with snow no money.  I want to make it happen this year.

25.  Begin taking more time to sketch and draw.  Keep a pad with me always.  Learning more as I go.

26.  Do fun projects with the kids. - For learning and just plain fun.

27.  Go out with hubby alone and not worry about the kids.

28.  Paint our hutch, dining table and chairs.

29.  Learn more about nature.  I would love to spend time outdoors-observing, enjoying and learning.

30. Go to the Brimfield Antique Show.

31.  Visit the indoor farmers' market held locally every Saturday.

32.  Revamp my blog.

33. Relax more-let the little things go.

34.  Learn Photoshop!!

35.  Make valances for living room.

36.  Sew new kitchen curtains.

37.  Work on daughter's high school transcript.  ~Includes reading the book I bought for this.  So hard to get into this.

38.  Cook more things from scratch.

39.  Read all my Mother Earth News magazines.

I will definitely update this as I am able to cross things off this list.  I better get started.

Hope you join in.  I would love to see everyone's lists.  I have had so much fun and this will definitely keep me accountable.

Make Some Art Monday

I have been wanting to participate with Chrissie Grace on Make Some Art Monday for a couple of weeks now.  Mondays can be so busy as we try to get back into the swing of things with homeschool, we usually have errands to run and some house organizing and laundry catch-up from the weekend.  

This week I kept reminding myself that I had to participate.  I checked in early and was almost ready to go and was called away.  I was caught up in the day but did finally manage to get back here now~ Better late than never.

These are a couple of collage pieces I was just playing around with.

Collage frame~now I need something to put in it.

Collage~some pictures that I liked and put together.

I have fun adding things and layering to see what I come up with.  These were some free time fun I had.  I need some time like that where I don't have to think about anything else~only the things I like and enjoy.  I'm sure you know what I mean.

I hope you have enjoyed.  Go over to Chrissie Grace's blog for more wonderful art.

"

Son's Artwork

My son has always loved to draw.  From a very young age he has spent hours drawing. When we first began homeschooling there was a great art class he was a part of and loved.  After a couple of months the teacher moved away.  We were so sad and had not found another class like hers but now we finally have.  He recently started taking an art class with our homeschool group and is loving it.  I also love this class.  The teacher is great at giving the instruction for what she would like to see but also letting them be creative and imaginative.

This picture was a homework assignment using simple lines to sketch household objects.

This is a watercolor and oil pastel resist.  

The next assignment had them drawing an animal dreaming of Van Gogh's starry night.

My son drew a cat dreaming~the cyprus tree to the left becomes fish the cat is dreaming of, the hills become mice, the lights in the sky are yarn balls and the moon is a milk bowl.  This is done in oil pastels.

I may be a little biased, he is the cutest boy in the world after all-LOL, but I am so in love with his work.  At home he usually draws characters from shows that he likes to watch.  In this class he is learning new techniques and about the great artists.  I am just so thrilled that we were blessed to have this class.

I hope you have enjoyed his work.