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(Darn, I wanted 1979... I waited too long. lol)

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Nathan's Turn!

That's right ladies, I'm girl crazy. :oD

.... Raaawr !

Anthony's Crazy Talk

Just having some fun with the laptop... ;o}

Thought we'd share!

Do I hear wedding bells?

Guess where I am right now as this is being posted to the world wide web?

(*Ahem* Cue the music)

"dun-dun dahdun... dun-dun dahdun... Here comes the bride..."


Getting married! That's right... after ten long years it is finally happening. Right now!

***This is not a joke.... I repeat, this is not a joke....***

Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Matt and I are saying our vows, exchanging rings, and are becoming husband and wife.

(We intentionally kept it quiet.)

It's just us, the boys, and our immediate family members. So, say a little prayer for us.

However...

In one year - Saturday, August 8th, 2009 - we will renew our vows in the church and invite a larger group of friends and family to join us for the ceremony. So, mark that down in your calendars and make sure I have your updated mailing address.

I put Jessi in charge of the camera. She has pictures posted here.

I wish we could have everyone with us - but, that's what next year's ceremony is for.

We love you all,

~Sara & Matt Bequette~

Nature or Still Life?:

Our first week we also had to draw a still life with an art medium I had never used, "vine charcoal." I hated it rather quickly. Here's a small picture of what vine charcoal looks like.

I attempted to draw a leaf, stick, and acorn in my very windy parking lot during lunch. I was not at all pleased. This stuff is like drawing with a burnt stick. If you draw over another mark, it completely erases it. It was like drawing with chalk dust. Blech. I hated my drawing when I finished, but I must admit that last night I ran across that little drawing (four weeks later) and I kind of like the leaf. I don't even have that one scanned it, but mayhaps I will scan it in sometime and post in on here for you.

I asked my fellow classmates for tips and suggestions for using charcoal since I am completely unfamiliar with it. I guess it just takes practice (and another form of charcoal.)

Later that same evening I stopped at Mom's to draw outside using the vine charcoal. Once again, I hated it - but, this is what I posted:

I found it very difficult to get any dark values. It was all so "gray" and blah.

Here are some of the comments I received:

"Hey Sara!I understand your frustration with charcoal. Try getting a few different kinds of charcoal. You'll find that they all do something different. When combined they produce the results you are looking for. The biggest thing is to just practice with it. And make sure you practice with the kneading eraser too. It's such a great tool.You have a good start. Just get some compressed charcoal to add your shadows and then use the eraser to add your highlights." - Candice Bruegeman

Well, apparently I did not read the directions very well. I thought it said ONLY vine charcoal!

"Candice, I completely missed the part in the assignment that said we could used the compressed charcoal sticks! I thought that we were to only use the vine charcoal. Thank you for your suggestions, I truly appreciate them and will definitely take them into consideration for future assignments. I may have time tomorrow to rework my drawing some. I am unused to the broad strokes that the charcoal delivers. I kept trying to sharpen the edges to a point, but that doesn't last very long. I would create dark edges, blow the excess powder away and the dark color would disappear with it.Thank you again," ~Sara~

"Sara, it is a good start. You definitely have good control. I find a piece of medium or fine sand paper is handy to get a finer edge with any lead or charcoal medium. Erasing the dark space helps to. Practice Practice." - Jacob Seright

I then took the said compressed charcoal and tried to define some edges and darken and shadows. I ended up with an outlined mess. lol

Here was my resubmission:

Here is what was said about this version:

"Sara, I am looking at both of your submissions-though the first one has a lot of dark tones and definitely needed contrasting lights, it also had more interesting marks in the grass. Right now the grass needs a few dark marks to break up the greyness.The bigger areas line the light grey geometric area closest us still needs a variety in value (it should contain more than one tone) Also the grass behind the trees should get darker-to indicate that that space is further away from the viewer." - Prof. Yevgeniya Baras

"This is really good, You seem to have your perspective down and the water looks realistic to me. I like your Mom's little planter, it is cute, especially in front of the background. Great job!" - Erin Norton

Drawing Class Begins: (A tulip)

I didn't think I ever had more than one week off between semesters, so I was quite pleased to hear we would have a one month break. Well, my one month summer break from school was great. However, as any time off does - it flew by in a flash! I am now in "Drawing" class; which should explain my lack of posting. Back to the busy life!

Here is some of my work from the first week of class (the next four weeks of work will be posted daily):

Our first assignment was to draw an object in nature using regular drawing pencils and white charcoal paper, so I chose this red and yellow tulip...

I drew dark to portray the red and lightly to show the yellow tips of the petals. I tried to shade with the veins of the petals so they would come through some. My classmates were pleased; however, my teacher was not. Though it didn't state so in the instruction - we were apparently to show the entire object as well as the background. She really continued to stress this throughout our work, so you'll see a lot of background information in my future submissions. She is by far the toughest teacher I have had yet.

Here are a few of the comments I received in class (this is also for my own record, so feel free to skip if you're bored... lol):

"Sara -This is amazing - the life in the tulip is great! I could see it as any color because you got the tone of the petals and softness of the natural movement right on!! Very inspiring... keep up the great work =)" - Michelle V

"It is important that in your next drawing-you draw the whole flower, don't cut off the object half way. Put the whole flower on the surface and deal with the whole surface (table, chair), the shadow that the objects casts-give the viewer as much info as possible." - Prof. Yevgeniya Baras

"Sara, I think you have done an excellent job. Your flower looks great with its tone and everything. I am very impressed. You definitely appear to have a really strong ability for drawing. I do not know how long you have been drawing but it looks like you are a pro." - Kevin Rhoades

"Nice work on the tulip Sara! You are definitely not afraid to use dark values. That's very important. I agree that if this were a panned out view more, this would make for a more finished and artistic piece. This would work if you were to focus on all the fine details. I can't wait to see more!" - Candice Bruegeman