Monday, July 23, 2012

sweet peas are hard

Let me clarify, drawing the sweet pea blossom is very difficult. Have you ever studied the blossom of the sweet pea? The mixed runner sweet pea to be exact. They are very difficult to disect. Maybe if I had a real one I could figure it out but looking at photos on the web is not helping me. Let me back up...

I was so excited when I read that the Baker Creek Seed Company was looking for illustrators to illustrate seed packets. That's a job I can do from home (since I am now a stay at home mom) and they even offer to pay in seeds! (a gardener's dream) So I was so excited, I emailed them and they wrote back. The plant they want me to illustrate is the mixed runner sweet pea. Maybe it is a test to weed out lousy illustraters which apparently I am because I am having a very hard time. So far, this is what I have...




So this is what I've come up with. I like it but I don't think it is seed packet material. I'm trying to a drawing in colored pencil but it isn't turning out so well. So, I will probably end up sending this one to the Baker Creek people so at least I can say I tried. If only they had given me a sunflower or a tomato. ...sigh....

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

who's got the blues?

After months of painting brown watercolors I finally gave in and let Lukas play around with some acrylic paint. I kept the palette cool with blues and greens. I thought at least that way whatever he painted would look good in my nautical themed home.




Tuesday, July 17, 2012

painting with watercolors

Okay, I can't say I haven't gotten to paint some. Lukas, my almost three year old, loves to paint. I started him on with watercolors in which he quickly learned to blend all the colors together to get brown. And so he paints with a lot of brown. We started with GLOB watercolors but he quickly wanted more so I gave in and let him use some van gogh watercolors. (more on GLOB later) I LOVE that my little man loves to paint. I only wish I had enough frames to put them all in and hang them!


 I helped with the sun and the tree in this one. Yes, look closely you'll see them.

forget the beef, where's the peace?

It's 1:15 am and this is my free time. I haven't posted in such a long time due to the fact that I have recently given birth yet again. This pregnancy was much harder than the first one and I am just now starting to aquire some sort of normalcy. Ah...where to begin?

I spent a great deal of this pregnancy feeling very depressed and stressed out. Should I talk about that or about how it all lead up to me going into labor two weeks early and giving birth naturally in an operating room, not at all how I had planned.

Or should I focus on the now, and how strange it is to quit working to be a stay at home mom to a newborn and almost three year old. To worry about being a one income family, about being a good mom, a good wife, a good daughter, sister, friend, about losing myself completely...

Will I ever find peace again? or the time to paint?

These are the questions I torture myself with. I'm convinced if I try to start documenting them it may all become clear, or at least a bit less foggy.