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

Blue bird spring

I was thinking of spring time as I gazed out my window at a cold and snowy scene.  With a bit of ink and some watercolors I can create a very different scene in my art journal - in an imaginary garden a bird and a word :-)

"Blue Bird Spring"

And all the while Remy was gazing out the window looking for bunnies or anything else braving the weather. 

He is also thinking "walkies!" :-)

Love this boy <3

Mixed media scenario and sunshine Remy

From yesterday's post about waiting for things to dry, this is what was keeping me busy.  It is called "The Discovery of the Three Orbs":

Watercolor, pastel, charcoal, graphite, NeoColor II, colored pencil

A snowstorm blew through yesterday, but today the sun is out and the sky is blue. The snow has almost disappeared.

My beautiful Remy in the sunshine.

Time to take a break for "walkies" :-)

Giving body to the one-liner bird... with mixed media.

I had so much fun making these birds; they are from the current Year of the Spark assignment.

During the entire process, I kept this in mind... Let the medium rule.

This one was done using a fine line marker and oil pastels on card stock:

 Next up, acrylic paint, acrylic ink, watercolor, gel pen, and pastels on gessoed watercolor paper:

And the final one, acrylic ink, graphite, Neocolor II waxed pastels, and charcoal on gessoed watercolor paper:

As you can see from the different interpretations of the original one-liner (see the bird montage in this blog post ), the kind of medium and sequence in which it was used created the flow to the finished bird.

Playing

and doodling words, just for fun:

Doodling.

Mixed media bird

I felt like drawing another imaginary bird. Earlier this month I watched a quick video from Carla Sonheim called “Crazy Birds Tutorial”.  Carla has great ideas for getting started and this is a fun one. 

I made a few sketches using the ‘crazy birds’ approach and posted the first bird here a few weeks ago.  This second bird is a mixed media piece:

In the sun's light...

 I used some masking, stippling and sgraffito techniques from Diane Culhane’s “Paint Your Garden” workshop, too.