Watercolor birds and Remy's 300# snack

I decided to use water colors today in the pink-y orange-y range.  The pink, peach, and yellow combination appeal to me :-)

Three Little Birds, ink and watercolor

O, about Remy's 300# snack, this is what I rescued of the quarter sheet:

He chose the "good" paper, Arches 300# (638 gsm) hot press.

Even as a puppy he enjoyed ripping up paper and eating it (oh, no-o-h).  I've learned to close the door to my studio and office lest he grab a quick "bite".

He's really a sweet boy.

Remy with his octopus.

Blot recovery

My art journal is a place where "there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-mistake"... in theory.  I still cringe when the unexpected happens.  By that I mean a drag mark of ink or paint from my sleeve because I always seem to get my cuff or elbow into paint or glue, even coffee!

In this instance it was wayward ink.  I had just cleaned my fountain pen and had installed a new ink cartridge.  Since the nib and feed were completely dry I was shaking the pen to encourage ink flow.  But I was doing this over my journal and, wow, a big, blue blob of ink magically appeared.  Oy.

My recovery was this:

"Ink Blot Birds"

I am adhering to the art journaling precept of "there is no-such-thing..."  :-)

Blooms and Tweets and Remy

Today - cold and sunny changing over to grayness and snow.  But the flowers are blooming and the birds are tweeting in my studio:

I call this "Blooms and Tweets".

Remy was laying on the foyer rug while I put on my cold weather clobber for "walkies" this afternoon.

Doesn't it look like he's sniffing the flower?

I am so fortunate that he is a patient boy <3

Media Montage of Dogs and Birds

"Year of the Spark", the year-long online class I am taking, kicked off with a lot of drawing.  All of the one-liner drawings of dogs and birds (see this blog post ) were useful in more exploration and experimentation.

I chose two to develop further using a different medium for each critter.  These are the ten variations for the dog and the bird:

All manner of dogs :-)

Um... birds :-)

Art journal - Love This Day

I have been working on this spread intermittently for awhile.  Many of the layers needed time to dry.  And so I'd do something else in the interim and then, oops, get distracted and somehow not get back to my journal.  Distraction... a technique that allows for painless and plentiful drying time :-)

Imaginary bird friends.

 Here is a closeup of some texture:

The joy of modeling paste.

Birds, flowers and sheep

Beginning with a surface covered in random colors of paint, I found imaginary flowers – next came birds (a favorite subject) and then, out of the blue, little sheep:

I think it's a happy painting :-)

 Masking, sgraffito, stippling, blown blots techniques, again, from "Paint Your Garden", an online workshop by Diane Culhane.