Last night my sister came over to hang with me. I drew her. She is 37 weeks. I am very excited to welcome a new little neice or nephew (we are secretly hoping for a neice) on October 23. I drew her with a 6B and 9B pencil in my Moleskine. I haven’t drawn any people for a while, so this was fun.

I had a hard time with this one. First of all, in my house, I decorate for fall, not Halloween. That way I can leave my decorations up until after Thanksgiving. I love my house in the fall…it feels cozy with all the warm colors…we turn on the fireplace…pull out the blankets. I should take some pictures for you. Anyway…since I already did the creepiest thing in my house as a blind contour several months ago (I know I posted it – a 3 eyed skull – but I couldn’t find it in the archives), I decided as I was folding the laundry to do Max’s monster shirt. I picked this up at a garage sale and I really love it. I am not sure if I like it because the characters look like kid’s drawings or because it has an octopus and a gorilla on it…anyway…here it is, wrinkles and folds and in all it’s spooky-ness.

This year, now that Max is in preschool, he comes into the church service on Sundays with me and Savannah. The kids sit through the worship part of the service (songs & stuff) and then are dismissed right before our pastor begins the sermon. Max has just been doing this since about the second week of September. The first week was a disaster. He had never sat in any kind of a service prior to this, due to our church’s wonderful children’s program of which I take full advantage. He wanted to shout and then got upset with me when I tried to limit his use of the offering envelopes and encouragement cards that had been placed about every six feet of pew in the entire sanctuary. Needless to say, I was so glad I had made the decision to sit in the balcony that Sunday. The announcement for the kids to go to children’s church could not have been more longed for! Sam works in the tech booth on Sunday’s so I had to deal with it by myself. I couldn’t help thinking “what am I going to do next year when I have all three of them up here with me!?” Anyway, Max’s obsession with “mail” (aka the offering envelopes and prayer cards) has manifested into a game that I love. And now, I look forward to church, because it is something special him and I do together. I now stock my purse full of cards and envelopes every sunday, as religiously as I pack the diaper bag (or I guess I should say the Diego backpack – because Karson is now responsible for his own bag and wears it around with pride…I think Diego is his new hero or something, he want’s to be Diego for Halloween…but that is a different story) So the game is simply this…Max starts a drawing with one object, he puts the card in an envelope and passes it to me. I draw a little something and then pass it back to him. He adds another thing and so on, until the paper is so full, we can’t cram anymore stuff on it. It’s so cool, because he is learning to draw stuff like birds and owls. The other day I drew an owl on a tree and today I noticed he drew an owl. I love this game! It’s quiet. It’s perfect for church. Max loves the attention. So above is a drawing we did to day when I got home from school. It was the first thing we did together, and then we colored it together in photoshop. He’s getting to be quite the little creative artist, don’t you think?

Oh, and the details about his picture (because you need a 4 yr. old’s interpretation to fully appreciate it) are:
It’s fall. The sun is going down. The man in the moon is invisible, but he just threw a blue pebble down to earh. There is a bird by the nest and the owl on the other side is wearing a blue hat and playing a guitar. There is music coming out of the trumpet that the bird is playing (I drew the bird and added the trumpet after Max added the guitar…he added the lines for the sound). The yellow things in the sky…those would be shooting stars and the color of the sky is “Midnight black” according to Max.

81 degrees here in Michigan today! This evening was perfect. After my drawing class concluded, I took my things out to my car and was captured by the light of the moon. I grabbed my sketchbook, watercolors and my waterbrush and found a spot to stand and paint the amazing sight. You probably think this sounds corny…but I was really inspired by the moon and the way the clouds swirled around it like steam rising from a hot drink. I have never tried to paint the moon, so I thought that was reason enough to try it out tonight. I primarily used some version of blue…not sure what it is anymore, it’s been a while since I first received my travel watercolors…and some payne’s gray I am guessing. As I was painting, a guy named Jim (at least I think that was his name) approached me and said, “I see it inspired you too.” He had apparantly been observing the moon for the past several minutes, since he couldn’t hear the watercolor artist who was demonstrating at the Jackson Civic Artists Association meeting. He said he watched the moon a while and then he started to picture it over a field and began planning a future painting that he wants to attempt this week. He paints in oils. He wanted to know what I do, I said I am a teacher, and a mom and I mostly just draw in my journal because I do not have the time to execute larger works of art, but that answer didn’t really seem to satisfy him. He offered some encouraging words and then I showed him some of my journal and he mentioned that he needs to get back to drawing and sketching, like he used to. Anyway, it was a very relaxing five or so minutes, and as I was painting (before Jim started talking to me) I loved every minute of it and all I wanted to do was paint the moon for the rest of the night. But, I had to get home to crying children who were having issues with suckers and chicken. I tucked them into bed without a story tonight because I taught my third graders today and just about lost my voice. I came downstairs, poured a drink and scanned my drawing no sooner than I heard a loud clap of thunder that woke my almost sleeping children…who were now screaming at the top of their lungs. It’s been a long day for me. I have a cold/sinus thing going on and it’s wearing me out, so I am going to bed as soon as I publish this and change over the laundry and clean up the kitchen and pick up the toys and…anyway, I hope you had the chance to enjoy the beautiful moon tonight, too.