Bird Monday

Despite the chilly, rainy weather we've been experiencing,  birds have been singing and chirping to bring joy to my day.  I really enjoy the birds that perch at the very tippy top of our neighbor's pine tree and just broadcast their news :-)

It's therefore no surprise that birds make their appearance in my art journal.

Flying -

Graphite sketch

And imaginary -

Mixed media

Jackdaw and a MOO

I have drawn ravens and jays but never a jackdaw... until now :-)

Graphite

And more from my art journal, this MOO:

Copic markers, ink

From the sketchbook

Before I put away the carving tools, a few more rubber stamps:

Doodle-inspired line up

These critters - and the coffee mug - were inspired by some of my sketchbook doodles. 

Doodles In Isolation

Another exercise from Diane Culhane's online class, "Doings of A Doodle". 

From my sketch books, choose some favorite doodles.  Isolate them and place each one on watercolor paper.

Instead of being lost in a mass of doodling, each selected doodle is spotlighted:

I doodle birds often.

A rare cat doodle

I love dogs.

A sheep in a mushroom forest.

Fairy tales' end

Carla's online class, 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale drew to a close this month.  A great experience, I enjoyed the class structure where there is a research period followed by drawing, painting and mixed media work.

Final fairy tale art: adding some color to the title page.

Graphite, ink and colored pencil.

I benefited from this year-long class through exploration of techniques (new, old, experimental) so much so that I am eagerly awaiting "2015: Year of the...???"

Bird Variation

I have been in the mood to draw, draw, draw... specifically in ink.  I made a variation of the bird in my previous post - only this time I began with little circles and an active line using a Pigma Micron .005 pen.

When the line work was finished I added color with pastel pencils.  Ta-dah, a blue green purple bird:

O my goodness, another bird...

Mixed Media Br-r-r-d

O my, the weather is changing quickly.  More drizzly, cloudy days and cooler temperatures than I remember from years past.

So yesterday I was in my studio looking out at the trees and watching wedges of geese flying off to wherever they go this time of year and this image came to me:

Am I a braven?  Am I a rudgie?

This is a sort of a budgie-like bird with raven coloring who is of course wearing vermillion ear muffs... why not :-)

Pop of color

I continue to draw birds (!) and this is the latest one in pastels and ink - a little guy with a nice red belly:

Warbling a personal tune  :-)

Remy and I are still enjoying the sunshine, mixed now and again with fast-moving rain showers.  Here's my boy smiling away because he had just finished chasing his tennis ball around the yard:

Play time...

Brushing paint

I am having so much fun applying acrylic paints with an abandon that I usually reserve for abstract painting.  Diane Culhane's techniques from her online class, "Paint Your Garden"  really encourage me to use a lot of dry brushing, leaving underpainting and other layers only partially obscured.

The assignments are great exercises and I am getting the hang of using a rigger ("liner" brush) to define little characters.

Some vignettes from a couple of days ago:

Very green sort of flower...

Is there a flower like this one?

This is also a flower...with fireworks :-)

Some "brush"-ier birds:

Brushing, layering, masking and some sgraffito.

I added line work. (I really like to add definition.)

Well, time for an iced Americano and more studio time. 

Bird in blues

I had one last piece of watercolor paper that had been prepped with acrylic paint.  Not wanting to do another wolf I decided to create an imaginary bird.  I watched a short video on Carla's blog where she demonstrates a "creative starter" technique that is brilliantly simple (here's the link to Carla's post).

I drew my circle and flower on some scrap paper then cut it into quarters; I didn't glue the two pieces to my w/c paper but taped the pieces onto some copy paper:

Hmmm...

With tracing paper over top, I "found" the bird:

He was there all along.

I transferred my drawing onto the prepped paper and masked the bird with painter's tape.  Then I brought out the oil pastels and began applying color.  I also used pastels, colored pencil and graphite.

Bird in blue and I think he's found something:

 

"I spy..."

It was a beautiful spring day and outside my studio all kinds of birds were singing.  I enjoyed working along to their beautiful calls.

A bird in the hand...

which in this case is a bird critter:

Rubber stamps, yummy :-D

He's a pretty big stamp:

As a rookie stamp carver, I'm still experimenting material removal.

With Copic colors - hmmm, guess he has a crown now:

Perhaps he's an extremely tall duck???

I use my Copics more like watercolor - very little blending..

Baby bird by chance

because he started out as several random daubs and strokes of watercolor and gesso:

"Peep".

Assignments done, yay!

The base paintings from a few days ago now look like this:
Yellow red base:

Funny birds, huh.

Blue red base:

This would have to be Romy and Remy with me!

Isn't this a funny one?

Another paint daub critter:

Wacky or in a tizzy?

Some days

are just fab-u-lous!

"Huzzah!"

Now for something different...

With tiny little feet like these, wings are a necessity for this lady bird :-)
[Mixed media piece - watercolor, charcoal, graphite, ink]