Fremont's Leather Flower

Fremont's Leather Flower
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Young Naturalist
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Rianna was home sick yesterday, but it was too nice to stay in. We went to the Anita Goreman Discovery Center (MoDNR) and did some field sketching. We took Cathy Johnson's Sketching in Nature and looked at some journal pages she did, the details she included and notes, and did our own. I painted mine at home.

Fremont's Leather Flower is a Missouri Native, preferring dolomite glades where it blooms in the spring. The leaves last through Fall, when they become filigree ornaments gracing the Autumnal splendor.

Rianna's sketchbook page from yesterday:

"I was out drawing with mom and saw this Flower. I think its fun to darw. It is very prity and a Bug was on a leaf. Ther was tow of them."

She really tried hard to draw what she saw and get some identifying features included, we had talked about doing that before we started. We also worked on not disturbing each other and using the available time (while Mom was still drawing!) to fill in more and more detail.

I did as much of the pencil detail as I could and we ran back inside the center, worried that the rain would catch us (boy, the clouds sure were threatening-looking!). In the bookstore, we found some infor about the flower. We also found Peterson First Guides: Butterflies and Moths and Don Kurz' Trees of Missouri Field Guide that really wanted to come home with us...so they did!

The Fountain of Lamy

The Fountain of Lamy
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

The Lamy Safari has been one of the be-all-end-all writing tools of Moleskine fanatics next to the Pilot G2 pens. Loaded up with a bulletproof Noodler's ink in a converter, they are a pleasure to draw with on smooth papers. Once the ink is dry, it can be painted over with my watercolor pencils or paints without smearing. To date, I have 3 pens. The Vista, pictured here, loaded with Noodler's Lexington Grey with an Extra Fine nib, produces a fine enough line without being heavily dark, but still neutral enough to work with many other colors. My Charcoal Safari, also sporting an Extra Fine nib, is loaded with Noodler's Eternal Black, mostly used for writing, though some subjects beg to be drawn in stark black. The third Extra Fine Safari is Blue, filled with Lamy's blue ink. It's water soluable; a property I love to expoit and use. I'll use a water brush to wash a sky or set a background for more blue linework. I smell garage sale season, may have to look for hidden treasures this summer...

EDM #158 - A Kernel of Popped Popcorn

EDM #158 - A Kernel of Popped Popcorn
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Popcorn is a tradition in our family (the Weltes). Dad would make some in the cast iron skillet almost every night and we would eat it out of round cake pans with salt (no butter at home). Sometimes we would lie on the floor with the pan on our bellies watching TV. We don't eat it that often now, but it's a favorite still and is featured at every Welte reunion. This is some Topsy's Old Fashioned popcorn from Crown Center. I like it ok, but it's missing that frying pan taste.

EDM #074 - Clouds

EDM #074 - Clouds
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

It's thunderstorm and tornado season here. Towering, anvil-topped Cumulus clouds have been moving through all day, dropping rain, off and on. Tornados almost never make it this far into the city--but it's possible--so the kids and I talked about what we should do and where to go--in case.

Breakfast of Raptors

Breakfast of Raptors
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

A local Peregrine enjoying breakfast on the utility pole in front of our building. He stoops down, pulls up, over and over. We see them, once in a while, riding thermals like California hangliders and diving after prey like F-16s. Good morning.

The Newbern

The Newbern
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Built in 1921-1923 and designed by Ernest O Bronstrom. It's at 525 E Armour Boulevard at the North end of Hyde Park, one of the most affluent areas of Kansas City in the 1920s. The style is called "Sullivanesque" after Chicago Architect Louis Sullivan, mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright, and is characterized by the profuse ornamentation and visual division of the vertical towers into zones. Originally two separate towers sporting 6-foot terra cotta peacocks over the doorways, the "unfortunate birds" scared patrons and were removed, one taken by Bronstrom for his garden. The central, barrel-vaulted connection and new doorway (that I drew) was added in 1925. The apartment-hotel is listed on the Missouri and National Historic Building Registers. The entrance is grey limestone with terra cotta ornamentation, framed by two wrought-iron and stained-glass lamps.

More information is available on this site: www.newbernapartments.com/history.htm

Noodler's Lexington Grey ink and Graphitint watercolor pencils on Bristol Vellum in my sketchbook.

EDM #035 - Draw a Bicycle or Part of One

EDM #035 - Draw a Bicycle or Part of One
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Geordan's home sick with a fever. Nothing hurts and his breathing's fine, he just feels puny and has a 102 temperature. We went to Wal-mart and got an air pump for the bikes. He's happily riding around and around.

Geordan's closer to leaving the training wheels behind, Rianna will take lots of coaxing, cajoling and tears to give them up! I think the key will be peer pressure-her best friend rode by on her bike a couple weeks ago-without training wheels!!

This year, Bicycle Moto-cross (BMX) will make it's debut as an Olympic medal event. The kids will love watching that! NPR interviewed the two girls on the team.

Noodler's and Lamy inks and Neocolor II soluable crayons on Fabriano Artistico hp.