"To Outline or Not to Outline"

Tonight I finished my drawing for my friend's son, Kaleb. It is a wonderful birthday present for him and I hope he'll like it. As I said in my last post, I will be describing how I make my art. In tonight's session I'm going to explain when you should outline a drawing and when to leave it alone!

In art school- my teachers ALWAYS told us not to outline. "This is not a coloring book!" is the phrase I heard over and over again. It was eventually engrained into me and I never outlined again... until now. It IS ok to outline certain drawings. Outlining something makes it stand out from the rest of page. Outlining has a lot of down sides too though-
* it makes a drawing look like a coloring book
* it makes a drawing look like a coloring book
* it makes a drawing look like a coloring book
Just in case I didn't make myself quite plain here lol. But if you are drawing cartoon characters or characitures (a cartoon of a person that emphasizes ONE facial feature), then outlining is great!

If you want to make a drawing look more realistic (and - in essence- like a photograph) then outlining is not the way to go. In this case the same type of effect can be acheived by using a darker color next to a lighter color or using shadows and highlights. Whenever I'm making a photo-realistic COLORED drawing, I almost never use black. It's unnecessary- seriously. Instead, try using a darker purple, blue, red, green or any combination. It's actually overkill if you use black.

Another thing I always do is make sure I tape down my paper before I begin. I pretty much always work in either charcoal or colored pastels and they leave a chalky residue behind that can get everywhere! When you tape down your paper, not only will you avoid your paper moving on you unexpectedly, but there will be a clean, sharp line framing your artwork and it makes it look more professional. Sometimes I'll even use a larger piece of paper to do a drawing and then cut out only the portion on the drawing I was to use and recycle the rest. If you want to do that too, then don't worry about where you place your tape.

The "Toy Story" drawing I did tonight, I used a tinted piece of paper (which I LOVE!) and colored pastels. I have pastel pencils as well and I use them for finishing touches as they are able to do details better than pastel sticks. The drawing itself didn't take me long, but I am a major perfectionist when it comes to color. I don't think I've ever made someone pay for one of my drawings unless I felt like there was nothing more i could do to make it better. So that took awhile. When I finished, I sprayed it down with hair spray- which sounds odd I know- but it acts a fixative so that the chalk from the pastels would stay in place and not get all over your hands OR WORSE on your glass in the picture frame (it ruins the picture should it ever move bc the glass acts as a chalk magnet and lifts it up from the picture). So it's really important to make sure you "FIX" your pastel or charcoal picture before you frame it. I used to spend insane amount on actual Fixative at Michael's but then i got smart and switched to hair spray which is 100xs cheaper! Just remember to spray your piece while it's still taped down and leave it alone until the spray dries--- otherwise it'll roll up a lot more than necessary. Lastly, spray your piece in long strokes about 6 inches above your work--- any closer and you'll leave spray marks, but too far and you won't get any fixative on your work! Hope this helps anyone who wanted to know about pastels!

GIRLS NIGHT!

Last night was our monthly get together with all the military wives I know (which isn't a lot, but they are seriously so much fun!). Before we drove North to Kari's house though I was bound and determined to buy my lil Moose some rain boots and a rain coat. I realize we live in Southern California, but the rainy season is starting and we will be going back to St. Louis in a month where the rain will be continuing! I shopped around on Friday and couldb't find anything! I was really dissappointed bc I found a lot online--- but my problem is that I like to have things right away--- so yesterday, Hana, Dannika, Victoria and I went up to Mission Mall and Nordstrom's FINALLY had toddler-sized rain boots! I was elated!... until I saw the price- $35 for boots!?!? seriously! do they know how fast my son grows? Apparently not- so AMAZON, it looks like I'll be buying from you! Woo-hoo!

Well, we got home and instantly had to start cooking and packing for Kari's house. I decided that I wanted to drink wine so all the girls agreed that it should be a sleep over. We've never done it before and let me just tell you that it totally brought back memories of middle school! It was so much fun! I packed my car literally to the max with toys, a pack n play, food, wine, pillows, blankets and (OF COURSE) my trusty camera. We headed out. It didn't take as long as I thought, but about 5 minutes into the drive, Jackson decided that us listening to "Harry Potter" audio books was not acceptable. The only thing that would calm him down was hearing me sing (and let me tell you that I'm pretty sure I'm tone def). So I sang everything- the ABCs, itsy bitsy spider, Twinkle twinkle little star and I even busted out some Glee songs once I had warmed up my voice lol. This continued for the whole 45 minute drive and I really wished I would've brought a drink-- well a non-alcoholic one lol.

The party was really quite a blast! When we get together, our conversations typically revolve around our husbands. I guess that's normal- I mean you can't really talk ABOUT your husband TO your husband can you? As more drinks are consumed, the topics tend to start drifting down the dirty path and I can just tell you that my friends are hilarious! I laughed so hard and long about stories last night, but for the life of me- I can't remember every one. Oh well.

They also are helping me out with my blog! I'm obviously a novice and so I think I suffer from a lack of cohesion when ever I write. I also need insiration- I mean what could I have to say or do that other people- people who don't even know me, I might add- would find interesting or funny enough to read MY blog. I think we've come up with a topic of high interest. As I said before, I am an artist. I've always been good at creating things and somehow making them turn out amazing. Thank goodness I was professionally trained though, bc let me just say- I would totally have missed out on techniques and materials that are now my favorite to use! The only down side of being an artist and being trained be REALLY GOOD artists is that everyone in my field tends to look down on "CRAFT"-art, which includes scrapbooking, drawing & painting (without a concept... so pretty much just because you WANT to draw or paint something), knitting / crocheting things and most of all hobbiests. Well I like doing all of those things and I'm very happy to teach what I've learned and am good at to anyone who wants to learn. I'll admit, I'm probably not the best teacher, but I'm ok. All the designs I use for my crocheted items are one-of a kind--- I literally made up the design and "fake it til I make it". So here I am, thinking of what to post next- should I do a blanket or hat? I think what I'm going to end up doing is making something and writing about it during the process. Hopefully, you'll all be able to understand my directions b/c I tend to work from a grid & design around it. Well, off to start making things!

"crying it out"

Steve left for a winter weapons training exercise on Tuesday (Feb 22) and so I had to dust off my "single" parenting shoes once again. I thout it would be easy- in truth, I thought it would be a breeze! I take care of my lil Moose all day and well into the night pretty much by myself. I guess just having Steve's presence here in the house makes Jackson a better (but not great) sleeper. That night and wednesday night, lil man woke up with a terrible high pitched scream so I literally RAN into his room, feeling like I was going to bust the door down, only to find out that he wanted to cuddle with his mommy. whew. thank god it wasn't anything serious. BUT he wanted to cuddle for about 4 hours each night and wouldn't let me put him down- we ended up watching endless Family Guy episodes (and thank the good Lord that Jackson doesn't understand what the show's are about) until FINALLY at 4am Disney Junior switched back on and we could watch more appropriate cartoons for another 90 minutes before he fell back asleep. Needless to say, Wednesday was ridiculous. we didn't leave the house! I was going to lose my mind with how tired I was, but the whole "Crying it out" method of sleep training seemed cruel and heartless to me and I could never go through all the way with it. Well, after a couple of days of being a living zombie, I decided to give it a try once again and Thursday night would be Night 1. I expected it to be rough (having attempted it several times, but always ending in me breaking down and running in) so we played outside, played inside, ran errands and pretty much kept him as busy as I could. Around 7, we started getting ready for bed: a nice bubble bath, bed time lotion, quiet playtime in his room, a book and (yes I know it's bad now) a bed time bottle. He went down beautifully! Around 10, he woke up and cried for 10 minutes and went back down. 11- same thing only it lasted for 20 minutes, then he fell back asleep, but woke up 5 minutes later and cried for an hour. I decided I had to go in and at least check on him. I went in with a nice warm bottle (Similac has a TODDLER formula that I mix with whole milk bc lil man's tummy is sensitive to milk still--- it works wonders!--- thanks Hana!) and I found, to my horror, that his diaper was completely soaked through! I felt like a terrible mom! I HEARD him crying and I THOUGHT it was nothing! OMG how am I going to do this!?!? I changed his diaper, fed him and put him back down (1/2 asleep already). He woke up around 7:30 and was happier than he had been all week! SUCCESS!!

Friday, we spent seriously ALL DAY running around. We played outside in the morning before his nap, then after it, went to have lunch with a bunch of my girl friends (and Dannika- Jackson's friend who is a total Diva and I LOVE IT!!!) and then went shopping. When we got home, we played outside and then went on a walk with my neighbor, Michelle, and her 2 year old son, Cole. Jackson loves Cole so it was great! He ran out some of his energy at the park and then we went home, made dinner and went to bed. He went down without a fuss again! YES! I decided that Night 2 would be just as bad as night 1 so I prepared myself: I did some design work for one of my clients and had 1/2 a bottle of wine. He did cry again... a lot! But it was in short bursts and luckily, my friend, Victoria, was texting me too and so I did not go in to his room. He finally settled back down around midnight and woke up at 5am. I was a little surprised to see the time, but went in all the same and gave him a bottle. He fell right back asleep and slept til 8:15. I listened outside his room and heard him laughing and playing in his crib. It was so precious!

Today, we have a lot of things to do as well as a GIRLS (and Jackson) night at my friend, Kari,'s house. I'm excited to see how he does bc we will all be spending the night! Wish us luck!

OH, and I'll be posting some pictures of my lastest arts & crafts up tomorrow... as soon as Hana shows me how to do it lol.

Background info

Hello everyone!
My name is Becca Digirolamo and I am a new blogger! My friend, Hana, got me on to the idea of blogging and so I thought I'd give it a try. Here goes:

BACKGROUND INFO
My husband, Steve, and I met at college through a mutual friend and I knew right away that he was "the one". It's really quite silly of me to use the the saying, but I think it was LUST at first sight that first drew us together. I knew that he was the guy for me about 2 weeks into our relationship and I seriously feel like an idiot when I say that I felt like we should've gotten married right then and there. Luckily, we waited 3 1/2 years (until I graduated) before we got married. It was so sweet how he asked me to marry him: we were at Jesse Hall (at Mizzou), the day he was commissioned into the Marines as a 2nd LT. I had a feeling that he would ask me to marry him before he left for TBS (The Basic School for all you non-marines out there lol) when our families would be vacationing together in FL. I had it all planned out in my head- a walk on the beach at sunset where he would get down on one knee and ask me---- but the REAL proposal was even better. As I was saying, so he was getting commissioned and we were all crying (as in about 50 of his closest friends, family and then random on-lookers) bc it was really a wonderful and heart-felt speech. There were pictures taken after and finally he asked me to come up and take a picture with some of his other Marine friends. I was giddy and talking to people (my dad recorded it lol- typical) when all of a sudden he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! It took a second for me to register it and (looking back at the video) I answered Yes, Thank you! about 20 seconds later. It was beautiful and so unlike Steve, that (had I not been there) I would've never believed him capable of something that romatic!
So, 1 year later (May 23, 2009) we were married. It was a major drama-fest getting there, but it was so worth it! That night we conceived our son, Jackson, born on Valentine's Day 2010. It was a major shock to me that we were able to conceive a child that early (I had only been off birth control for 2 weeks and my dr thought it might be difficult for us to conceive a child) and I even cried when I told Steve. I told him through a phone call (bc he was at artillary training in OK). He was just as shocked as I was and I even asked him what we were going to do about it. I feel like an idiot now, but at the time I was extremely upset. I envisioned myself to be an artist in CA or else a very successful graphic designer, but deinitely not a mom. I guess GOD knew me better than I did.
Well I moved out to San Diego to Camp Pendleton in Sept '09 when I was roughly 4 1/2 moths pregnant. We found out we were having a boy and I was a little disappointed- I wanted a girl (but that lasted all of 5 seconds). The joy of having a baby was soon over shadowed by the news that Steve would be deploying in JAN instead of MAY 2010. It was awful, but I expected it. I felt bad for him bc he was going to miss out on the birth of his 1st born child. I wasn't really worried for me- I'm strong, independent and very stubborn, so I really felt like I could handle it.
Steve left on JAN 13, 2010 and I cried the whole night before and then all day the next day (wednesday) and 3 days after that. I was really quite shocked bc I don't cry much (I blamed it on being pregnant). Jackson Andrew Digirolamo was born on Feb 14, 2010 thanks to the help of my wonderful mom and friends (Victoria and Sarah). God love them all... I was devastated that my son was going to be born on a commercial holiday bc it would mean that he would forever have to give some girl a present on HIS special day. But oh, well- he's a major flirt and so I can imagine him somehow weasling his way out of buying presents lol. I'm not going to lie- being a " single" parent is rough. It's a lot of sleepless nights AND days. It's only you and your child- and there's no one there to take him if you get overwhelmed or frustrated. There were many days when I felt like I couldn't do it. I would just break down and cry. Now, I look back on those days and pity myself- how could I ever belive I was capable of taking care of a newborn alone!?!? I read every baby book out there and really thought myself prepared for whatever this baby had to throw at me. It was a long 6 months, but 9with the help of friends and family) I got through it and feel much more confident in my abitilites. i used to get so angry at people who would post on FB that they miss their boyfriends or husbands after a couple of days- didn't they know what I was going through- didn't they realize that a business trip was not even close to a deployment!?!? I feel very much embarrassed at my behavior during those times- bc each person expects what they have grown accustomed to in their spouse and it was very unfair and selfish of me to think that my problems were any more important than Jane Doe's. I now know that i AM capable of being a "single" parent and that this deployment made me a better mother and wife.
Steve met Jackson when he was 6 moths old and they have been best buds ever since. Don't get me worng- Jackson is a MAJOR mama's boy and I LOVE it, but dad is always the "good guy".
Since Steve has been home- he's been thrusted into a parenting role that he had no practice or previous patience for. He's amazing with Jackson, but (like every parent) he does have his down falls. Being a Marine- he gets home late and often misses out on playtime. He gets home when it's time for lil man to go to bed and then Steve wants to play- which totally disrupts his sleep schedule lol. Steve's one of those dads who gets better with every day. We thought that we couldn't ever love anyone or anything as much as we loved each other - or our Mutt, Shep- but we were wrong. Jackson is what makes each day worth living!
That being said, I am a stay at home mom. It gets very monotonous, so I thought I'd become a hobbiest. i went to school for ART so I came up with MOOSEink (named after my son who's nickname is MOOSE). MOOSEink comprises of arts, crafts and photography. I'm not going to lie- I'm really good at everything art related which is why I chose to major in it in college. I think it stems from me being a perfectionist and not being satisfied until I feel it is perfect. My husband is obsessed with me doing something (other than raising our child lol) bc I sometimes "talk baby" to him with out realizing it hahahaha. maybe every mom is guilty of that. so I do MOOSEink.
This week I'm making a baby blanket for my cousin's daughter, AVA, due in May, drawing a picture for my friend, Jane, and doing graphics for my mom's gym, FLIP SIDE GYMNASTICS in St. Charles, MO. whew- that was a very long post and I hopefully won't be doing that again lol