You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2010.
I am sad for children who have parents that yell at them in public or in private. Yelling at kids only teaches kids to yell.
There are moments in times of present danger that require yelling (ie, kid walking into traffic), but if a parents spend all his time yelling, then yelling loses its efficacy and the kid ignores it.
So even if parents yell wonderful and Godly things at their kids, it does not teach them to behave properly. Kids respect you if and only if you respect them. Likewise, kids yell at you if and only if you yell at them. They learn from our behavior, not from what we tell them to do.
Having said that, small children have so many factors causing their behavior (they lack communication skills and the ability to understand time or money, they jump to the conclusion that mom is just being mean while they are in pain). The parent in public who calmly allows their child to yell and hit them is displaying the most self-control and Godly behavior possible. “Turn the other cheek.” The next best thing to do is just to ask the child to stop politely. That is what I would want another person to do to me if I was acting crazy. Sometimes I do, and the best thing for me is a hug and a polite word. That is how a parent shows respect for the toddler who doesn’t yet know what to do with his emotions.
That took me a long time to learn.


These are two acrylic portraits done on wooden nesting dolls. They are real nesting dolls which fit together. After this photo I put on a final coat of Mod Podge to protect them.
This was one of many projects that I get through the custom listings on Etsy.com.
The buyer sent me about 2 dozen photos, and from those I made sketches so he could visualize the project and ask for changes where he thought they were needed.
These dolls were a real challenge for me. When I do another set, I will not do more than one quick sketch on paper because the image was distorted when I transferred it to the blank dolls. Instead I will do a sketch just for compositional purposes (to pick clothing and size relationships), but all the fine tuning of the faces will need to be done right on the wood. The smooth finish of the wood is very easy to draw on (and erase and redraw). Here is the sketch that I did in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet which I later transferred to the dolls and painted:

If you are interested in having your portrait painted on wooden Russian dolls, contact me for pricing.
Here are the steps I took to finish up my first attempt at Art Nouveau design. This stuff is a lot of work. I hope to do more soon.





This was done for my best friend Decima; may God grant her and Adam many years!






