Drawing Hollyhocks

     The hollyhocks under my kitchen window finally bloomed this week. The pale green buds and delicate blossoms make them one of my favorite flowers to draw. I've been in love with hollyhocks for a long time, but this is the first time that I’ve grown them myself. After reading about them in author Sharon Lovejoy’s book Hollyhock Days, I realized that I, too, needed the companionship of hollyhocks.   

      I started my hollyhocks from seed last spring and transplanted them to the flower beds around the fourth of July. As with any other biennial, waiting for a plant to produce that you've sowed over a year ago can seem agonizingly slow. But when I heard the children exclaim, "Mom, mom, the hollyhocks have bloomed!" it was ample reward for all of my efforts.

     Typically you see Hollyhocks straddling white picket fences or hugging the sides of barns or garages, but I didn't want my hollyhocks growing down by the grain barn where I wouldn't see them very much. Instead, I planted them under the kitchen and bedroom windows where I can enjoy them daily. Here are a few sketches I’ve made so far this season. For the most part I used a blunt Derwent watercolor pencil dry. The color is Crimson Lake 20 and Olive Green 51. I wrote about planting hollyhocks from seed last year. You can read and see the sketches that Elizabeth and I did there.  

After interviewing nature journalist Richard Bell an English nature journalist, the kids and I are trying to journal more and we're sure enjoying ourselves. You can listen to this inspiring interview online. For ordering information visit our on-line workshops here. And don't miss our next workshop. It's coming up Thursday at 1:00 p.m. central time. Hope to see you and your children there. 

Introduction to The Gift of Family Writing by Jill Novak  
Thursday, June 21st 
1:00 p.m. Central time

Blessings,
Jill
   

8:38 PM - Jun. 17, 2007 - comments {9} - post comment

This Pile of Stuff on the Floor

      "This pile of stuff on the floor, is it in memorial to something?" I asked. Eric (age 16) laughed, only I didn't find it funny. I don't know if any of you have the same problem. “We” (I use this word loosely so as not to incriminate the innocent) don't mind sweeping articles of clothing (I hate to get graphic here, but…) stinky socks, underwear, Band-Aid wrappers, miscellaneous toys, household junk, and dirt into piles, leaving them in the middle of the floor and hoping they will kind of disappear (or someone else will clean them up).

      I think in the olden days they used the word "indolence" to describe this kind of behavior (if you don’t know what the word indolence means, have your children look it up), but I'm not so sure that is true in this case. After all, the entire floor was swept without any prompting on my part. Could it be that “we” have gotten into a very bad habit around here without even realizing it?

     I'm not sure when this bizarre behavior began, but lest I be accused of hypocrisy, I now make this confession. I think it all started with me a couple of years ago after I had surgery. It was difficult to bend over, so I began leaving piles of stuff for the kids to clean up after me. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” Hopefully this public confession will bring healing and deliverance (that is if I can get the guilty parties to clean up their acts and the mess at the same time).  

      Just now my husband "Mr. Thorough" bent over to pick up a pair of roller blade knee guards lying in the middle of the pile. "Stop!" I yelled. “Put those down. I’m conducting an experiment. I just want to see how long that pile sits in the middle of the floor before the person who swept it up deals with it an appropriate manner.”

     Oddly enough, before this post was even finished, the pile magically disappeared. Hmmmm, that’s amazing – a terrible habit broken by the power of the written word*

*Writer’s Tip: It always pays to read your entry out loud to the family before posting so you can hopefully catch the mistakes!   

2:18 PM - Jun. 17, 2007 - comments {6} - post comment

Anna’s Amazing “Discovery” or How to Draw a Toad

    Anna rushed into the house, shouting for joy. She had discovered a nature specimen in the same spot where she found one last week. It was under a large coil of plastic drainage pipe lying near the garage. The older kids and I hurried outside to observe her treasure. Resting in the cool shadow of the pipe was an American toad. I gingerly picked up the little guy with two fingers and carried him into the house.     
    Anna’s enthusiasm prompted the older kids and I to gather around the living room table to draw. I got out a new set of Derwent watercolor pencils that I had recently purchased off EBay (Anna misplaced most of my other set). We had all the right colors: olive green, golden brown, brown ochre, copper beech, and terracotta. Derwent watercolor pencils are very soft to work with and we often use them dry. I held the toad extended in the middle of the table, and we began sketching. For the most part it stayed still enough for us to try some decent quick sketches, although Eric kept getting the rear view. When Anna came into the living room and saw what we were doing, she exclaimed, "Oh, you're drawing the toad." Promptly, she pulled up a chair to join us and the comments began to fly.

   Anna's Toad,  age 8

     "I think I'm drawing a fish," Anna said.
     "I can't get the shape right," Elizabeth said.
     "There is no shape, it's a blob," Eric replied.   
     "I like bulgy toads," Anna said. "It's greenish, brownish, and bumpish." I chuckled to myself. Only an eight-year-old would think of saying something like that.   

Elizabeth's Toad, age 12

     We traded holding the toad and drawing it for a while, but everyone was struggling with its shape. I suggested that we try doing some blind contour drawing. Blind contour drawing is an exercise where you look only at your subject instead of your paper, while drawing a continuous line without lifting your pencil. This exercise trains your eyes to follow the contour or line of an object so that you can really see what you are attempting to draw. Children usually enjoy this exercise after they get used to it and helps them to process drawing in a different way. Except for a few distinctive characteristics, the finished drawing often looks nothing like the object they are trying to re-create–and that’s okay. The purpose of this exercise is to train your eye to see what is really there instead of what you think is there.

Elizabeth's Blind Contour Drawing   

Jill's Toad

      I started the blind contour drawing, but my paper kept slipping because I was trying to draw and hold the toad at the same time. Elizabeth reached behind her and picked some packing tape from the shelf. She tore some pieces off the roll and taped my card stock right to the table. Everyone else taped their paper down except Eric who was using a clipboard.  

Eric's Toad Parts, age 16

      By this time there was a lot of lively banter going on around the table (a little too much for my taste). I really like to draw in a relaxed atmosphere, and let me tell you, this wasn't it. By this time Eric had finished drawing and commented, "Anyone got a toad lollipop?”
     Anna replied, "Eric, touch only with your eyes."

Anna's Christmas Tree  

Suddenly, Anna began to draw a Christmas tree and we all cracked up. “It’s just like you said on your nature journaling interview with Richard Bell,  Mom.” Eric said. He was referring to the example I always use about how children in the symbolic stage of art (generally ages 5-8) usually draw a green triangle to represent Christmas tree, and how completely happy they are doing that. Anna’s spiky triangular tree was somewhere between the symbolic and realistic stages (9-12), but it definitely wasn’t a toad.

     "Nice toad," Eric said.
     "Everyone's complimenting me," Anna said.   
      Then Eric said, "We should make a DVD called "How to Kick Start Your Toad Drawing."

      “Mmmmm, not a bad idea,” I said.   

       Now lest you think our attempts at drawing the toad were all in vain, they weren’t. Quick sketching a live specimen can be very difficult, but it can also be a lot of fun for kids. Remind them that the goal is not to have a perfect drawing, but to enjoy the process of sketching. This can be very frustrating for more detailed-oriented children and adults, as well, but it’s important to try all kinds of drawing – all different ways – because in doing so you train your eye to see. Whether the end result looks exactly like your specimen is not important, especially if it hops away...  

After the kids finished drawing I took pictures of the toad, and downloaded them to the computer, and then I let him go. A few minutes later my sister called and said that she needed a break and was coming over for a while. I told her to tell my niece Rachel (a talented nature artist) that I had a great amphibian specimen over here for her to draw. When she arrived, I let her choose a picture and she got right to work. As my sister and I chatted, Rachel rendered a highly colorful and stylized picture of the toad from the computer screen. Joan and I were amazed when we saw it. One thing I know is that the toad never looked this good in real life. I’m really glad we took the time yesterday to sketch from life. Not only did we experience many different ways to observe a toad, but we made lots of family memories, too, by drawing  Anna’s amazing “discovery.”        

4:10 PM - Jun. 11, 2007 - comments {11} - post comment

Nature Journaling Interview

Jill painting at the age of seven

   It's been a long time since I've blogged and it's so good to be back. Our family has been busy with the production of our first color edition of The Girlhood Home Companion, and the learning curve and time invested was huge.
     Not only did we have the Girlhood to contend with, but I had three new speeches to pull together for the Peoria homeschool convention (along with Eric on blogging). What a blessing it was for our whole family to attend. Robert took such good care of us.

     I taught on: Writing for the Real World, The Gift of Family Writing, Preserving Your Spiritual Heritage, and Keeping Sketchbook Journals. I came home so full that I felt like I was going to bust (it was way too short). I don’t understand why I wasn’t exhausted, except that God strengthened me for the task and gave me so much joy (thank you for those of you who knew about the need and prayed). I think journaling, writing, and creative expression are the means of touching the very heart of God and learning to discern His voice. I will be posting about this in the future.

     I want to tell you about the interview that Nancy Baetz and I did together on nature journaling a few weeks ago. You can listen to it at Cindy Rushton's Ultiamte Home Expo here http://www.ultimatehomeschoolexpo.com/. It’s in two parts and a wonderful session that you can listen to together with your children. The Expo is only $35.00 for the week. I will be speaking about The Gift of Family Writing the first week of May.  I can’t wait. I hope you can join us there.       

Many blessings,

Jill     

10:28 PM - Apr. 18, 2007 - comments {6} - post comment

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2:38 PM - Mar. 24, 2007 - comments {2} - post comment

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