Pictures from Feb 10-15, 2014

Pictures from:

 Feb 10-15, 2014

 I had just cleaned the picnic table off, so the snow on the table is all new.  I measured 5 1/4 inches.  Then we got new snow last night; another 1+ on top of the previous 5; but our forecast is looking up for next week!!!

Dd's card to Dh

Dd's card to me--- I love it!

Dd made this for her buddy--

Another really cold week in Indiana (and more snow heading our way as I type!).  Dd went out on Monday for basketball practice, Thursday we went to LHE Co-op classes, and Saturday we went to our 7th out of 8 basketball game--and that is the extent of our outings.  This is our third year doing Upwards Basketball; and in all the previous years we would practice on our basketball goal in our driveway on shooting---but NOT this year!  This year our driveway has been covered in snow!  It is just so weird to compare this season to the other seasons; and know how different they are.  

Warm-up before game went well.  Our Seminoles won 24-4 or something like that.  Dd did really well on defense this game; which has been something they have been working on.  B/c the other team wasn't scoring they had the older kids pass to the younger kids on our team to score more; which was really great to see some of our 'unsung' heroes get to shine.

This is one of my favorite moments in the game--Dd really got down on the floor and went after the ball.  Sometimes she STANDS more than bending and going after the lower spectrum of the balls ventures; but she does a great job always on rebounding off the boards.

 

As of last night this is the SNOWIEST winter ON RECORD for Indiana!  We have already broken the record, and it is only Feb. 16th!  We still get snow up to April; and occasionally in April!  This is definitely going to be a hard winter to break for the future.  We have had 51.5 inches already.  The funny thing is that although we think we have had such a record breaking year, places in New England that normally get 70-80 inches have received over 100 inches of snow; something like 120 or more most likely; so that makes our 51.5 inches look like a joke!  It is all what you are use to (isn't that right, Christie!  You are tired of all the snow you've had and you've had less than 20 inches, I think.)  I must be getting old....going on and on about the weather!  I must say, it has made the birds like me a lot though!  But, they always like us in the winter when our bird feeders are full!

This week has been a very, very busy one for Dd.  This has been the week of making swords and daggers!  I think she has made 4 different ones.  They are all roughly based from different Percy Jackson character's swords.  She has seriously had a BLAST making these.  She has done some more coloring of Star Wars pictures; but that was second place to this project.  She also knitted one arm glove, now to make the second glove for it to be a complete pair of arm warmers.  That project started on Monday, but got dropped once she found the sword project so fun...

Each of the swords and daggers have a sheath and belt so they can be worn either across Dd's shoulders diagonally or like a belt; but she prefers across the chest style best.

 
The long sword is made out of two yard sticks put together, and the short daggers are made out of cardboard, then duct tape.  The sheaths are made out of duct tape alone.  ETA: she did get a new duct tape that is silver and covered the green part silver, to make it look like a real sword.  The purple thing is her sheath with sling.

 

Our Core stuff---we are in India now!  It is very interesting, and luckily I had bought quite a few books on India at various book sales; so I am good on that country.

Isn't this funny!!!

This male robin---okay, so I am NOT getting my hopes up...especially since he wasn't here today; but he has been hanging out in our tree off and on for days!!!!  Irony of all ironies, is that all our neighbors will get birds NESTS in their trees, in their yards...but we DON'T!!!  I don't know WHY!  None of our neighbors feed or care about animals at all, and they get the babies!  But, the babies do come to our feeders once they can fly.

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Mrs. C's Art Class Spring 2013

Mrs. C's Art Class Spring 2013

This post is going to be: In Process

Class one- She spent the class discussion the different proportions of the human body in drawing; depending on what type of drawing you are doing--- in a normal figure drawing class, the ratio would be that the length of the body would be 7 heads long.  In Manga it would be X, in Marvel Comics then it is longer still, close to 10 or so.  I didn't take notes on this, and Manga and Marvel aren't my thing...but it was interesting and a lot of the students in the class are interested in that information. 

Then she had them work on getting down the stereotypical proportions for the 'average' human body in "figure drawing'.  She had a form / graph printed on a white sheet of paper and put that inside a SHEET PROTECTOR.  Then the students would trace or draw on top of the sheet protector with a DRY ERASE MARKER; and then they could erase their mistakes with a piece of cloth.

I will try to take a picture of her form and post it.  She did a good job giving the students a good idea of where the head, neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, etc. hit and line up along the body.

Class Two:  The had the students draw a "Hang-Man" stick figure, and then proceed to show them how disproportionate that drawing it.  Then she re-discussed how the human body is typically 7 heads long/tall....if you don't know what I am saying pick up a pencil and a piece of paper--then draw 7 circles of the exact same size one on top of the other, vertically, up, like building a snowman,  draw your circles very lightly,  the top circle is the real head of the figure and the bottom 6 make up the rest of the body--the neck all the way down to the heel, the feet actually angle off and farther down past that last circle a little bit; but the heel would stop at the circle hitting the floor. 

She did a really good job of making sure she pointed out that this is just a AVERAGE, b/c as YOU know; we are all so very DIFFERENT...and this is just a drawing exercise to help teach your eye (and hand) how to get some practice.  Some people are (or is it "most") not going to fit into this proportional measure.

Now for the fun activity:
1) She had the students pick out 2-3 magazine cut outs; specifically ones that had the whole body there. 
2)Then put the magazine sheet INSIDE their plastic SHEET PROTECTOR ,
3)and get out their DRY ERASE MARKER
4)Draw a circle where the head is
5)draw a tiny circle for each of the two collar bones, then a line connecting them
6)draw a tiny circle/dot for the elbows, and a line connecting the elbows to the collar bone
7)draw a circle where the wrists are, and a line connecting the wrist to the elbow
8)draw a circle where the belly button is
9)draw a circle where each hip bone is
10)draw a circle where each knee is, and draw a line from the hip circle to the knee circle
11)draw a circle for each of the ankles, draw a line from the ankle to the knee
12) draw a line from the ankle circle to the end of the toes

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Then remove the magazine from inside the sheet protector and you will see just the stick figure form you drew; which is pretty interesting and in good proportion!  Then she suggested that the students take a sheet of regular white paper and a pencil and draw their stick figures onto a that piece of paper.

The drawing without the magazine inside the sheet protector.

The magazine cut-out was of the Statue of Liberty.

This activity helps the students to get better at drawing figures in correct proportions.

This class was on the differences between Comic and Manga.  Some of the classifications written on the board were:
Comic Illustrations are known for the following things: Action/Adventure, Divide & Conquer, Ongoing storyline, Set formula, Mass Productions (similar to McDonalds productions), Lots of Color, Dialogue Bubbles, Snapshots of expressions, Limited Frames, Focus on details--left to right.

Manga Illustrations are known for the following things: 
Any genre & novels, One Artist or writer, Creative as Possible, Crazy and Wild composition--original, Black and White Tones, Dialogue that is Integrated, Fluidity of Emotions, Less Detail, Top to Bottom--right to left... 

In class on 2-20-14; Mrs. Cole's gave a presentation on Manga--here are my class notes:
Manga started in Asia; impromptu sketches - whimsical. Francis Barlow printed  sequential plates; then William Hobath -1700's- A Rake's Progress- Series of Progress. Series of plates, illustrations, Matt & Jeff 1904 or 1907.  Astro Boy creator watched women in theater plays.  Maybe that is why his characters are so feminine.  Then Western comics influenced Asian Manga.

Last class pictures:

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