My Teacher, My son - "The Artist"

I often get compliments about my coloring and quite often I will hear from those that know I have two very talented kids , "I know where your kids get their talent". Well, it honestly is not from me! I think I was born with a crochet hook in one hand and a sewing needle in the other. I have an amazing talent to look at something and grab the newspaper, make my own pattern and then sew it up with no problems. Sewing always came naturally for me. But I couldn't draw a straight line to save my life. My 19 year old son though is amazing and incredibly talented. He graduated high school last May. He has taken this year off from school to work some things out financially and will be leaving this coming August for art college to pursue a degree in fine arts. These past 6 months he was commissioned by some different people to do some drawings for them. The above one is one he just completed for one of his high school teachers. She wanted a rather large drawing of her dog. To the left is the photo she provided him and to the right is the completed portrait of the dog. The entire portrait is done with Lyra color pencil and took 41 hours to complete.
Thought I would also share with you his largest piece he has done entirely in color pencil. His junior year of high school one of his art teachers entered him into a national contest. 30 entries out of thousands nationwide were chosen to complete their entry onto a life size fiberglass cow. My son was one of them and yes I do mean a life size cow! His cow was Noah's ark with after the storm on one side.....

....and before the storm on the other side. The entire cow is done in Lyra color pencils and took 170 hours to complete. He is the only one in the history of the contest to ever do a cow in color pencil. He entered again his senior year and once again placed in the 30 national finalists making him the only one to place twice in the history of the contest. His second cow he chose to paint and was of Betsy Ross making the flag and Francis Scott Key on the other side writing our national anthem. It took him 162 hours to complete his second cow.

My son has has spent a great deal of time trying to teach me how to color with color pencils. I say try because I'm not the easiest of students to have. Those that know me well know that I have been fighting an eye disease that has been causing a slow process of blindness all my life. In the last few months my eyes have taken a turn for the worse leaving me with only light and shapes that I can see in my left eye and depending on my right eye which also has considerable vision loss. As of this past May I can no longer drive. Due to this I also have problems seeing some colors. Therefore I'm sure it hasn't been easy for my son to teach me how to blend and color with my color pencils. I love making cards and he knows that so I truly appreciate his patience in working with me. However, I will admit he can be one tough teacher! Many times I wanted to quit coloring an image but he pushes me to do my best.

I also have a daughter who is amazing behind the camera. Soon I will post some pics of her work to share. So now you all know.....my kids didn't get it from me....instead they are teaching me! Can you imagine what my cards would look like if I could see, draw and color as well as my son!!!!!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas!