And The Materials Are…

I wanted to show you the collage materials that went into making my weird bird from yesterday:

Did you guess ALL 10 materials?  Well, if not, let me help you out!

1.  I started my bird collage with a word from this children’s dictionary for my bird’s body.  It started me thinking about a sewing theme.

2.  I altered pages from this old sewing book with acrylics before using it as part of the bird’s tail and nest materials.

3.  I color copied a doodle I did previously and cut it up for my bird’s hat.

4.  I used my gelli-printed deli papers for my bird’s head, wing and nest materials.

5.  A paint sample card for the bird’s eye but I didn’t like the yellow color so I turned it over and used the other side with the bar code!

6.  An old button was perfect for the top of the hat.

7.  A sequin for the eye.

8.  Old sheet music that I gelli-printed for the base of the nest.

9.  Swedish Tracing Paper that I had gelli-printed a feather stencil – this tracing paper feels more like a fabric.  It is a super fun material to collage with BTW!  I think I purchased it on Amazon.  It comes in a large roll.  I used it under the bird’s body for the nest.

10.  Tissue from an old dress pattern was used over the sheet music for the nest – a fun element of surprise. 😉

I usually use a glue stick to glue everything down and outline my bird with pencil to give it a little dimension.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the FUN I put into this BEST Dressed Bird!

Cheers! 🙂

 

Feathers Appear

I like this saying, “Feathers appear when angels are near.”

I enjoy making these “wild” feathers of my imagination!

I start by gluing some of my Gelli-printed deli papers to black paper.  I then fill in my feather form with Prismacolor pencils.  I love the creaminess of the pencils on the black paper.

Wishing you a Sunny Sunday friends!  😃

An American Robin

I found a dead Robin on the sidewalk in front of my home today.  I’m not sure how it died but I decided to include it in my nature journal today:

I see them everywhere here in the Pacific Northwest so I often take them for granted.  I enjoyed remembering my feathered friend today as I did a sketch in my journal with pencil first and then pen.  Finishing it with a loose watercolor painting and including a feather or two.  🙂

I did a collage of a Robin last Spring that you can find here.

Happy Friday!  🙂

Bird Feathers

My cat, Jack caught another bird the other day…

I don’t like this part of having an outdoor cat!  I did have to chuckle a bit when he came into the house with a feather on each ear.  He was wearing the evidence!

I am hoping the bird got away but there were many feathers on the ground so I collected a few:

And using this AWESOME book:

I was able to identify them as a Mourning Dove.

I never realized there are so many different patterns in feathers until I started studying birds!

So today, I decided to play with a feather stencil I purchased awhile ago:

Sometimes, it is just FUN to play with different art mediums and color combos:

I experimented with Oil Pastels, Watersoluble Wax Pastels, Pan Pastels and Prismacolor Pencils.

I had not thought to try these mediums with a stencil!  So fun to play!

Do you have a favorite?!  I’d love to hear what you think!  🙂

Happy Creating!

A Northern Flicker

I found this beautiful feather a few years ago:

And today I looked it up in my book on bird feathers and discovered it was from a Northern Flicker Woodpecker.  I thought it was from a woodpecker but I had no idea that this bird was so beautiful!  I hope you will look it up on the link I provided for you – just click on the underlined word.

Today I decided to make some imaginary feathers with watercolors.  I used a can of compressed air to blow the liquid paint across my paper.  So fun!

Here are my results – the first one is on 300 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper.  I used watercolors and Prismacolor pencils:

The second one I used 140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper.  I added Derwent Inktense pencils after the watercolor:

And for the third one, I used 140 lb. hot pressed watercolor paper.  I added water-soluble wax pastels after the watercolor:

Happy Creating!

The Crooked Quill

Did you know that the best quill pens were usually made from goose, swan and later turkey feathers?

So I decided to create my own:

This is the Crooked Quill and a bottle of Magical Ink…

I think there is the beginning of a story here!

According to Wikipedia, “Quill pens were the instrument of choice during the medieval era due to their compatibility with parchment and vellum.”

Here is another quill feather I created with a gold gel pen and Prismacolor pencils.

Quill pens are still used today mainly by professional scribes and calligraphers.

I have a turkey feather that a friend gave me and I am going to try making a quill out of it.  Maybe I will write a story with it!

Which feather do you like the best?

Fluffy Feathers

Last year I saw a Zentangled Feather on Pinterest so I decided to create my own:

I then colored it with Copic Markers.

Last night, I started creating a new feather:

I scanned this feather into the computer.  Now I can color it as many ways as I desire!

I started reading about feathers online at Wikipedia and discovered they are a complex subject!  I had no idea!

Did you know there are 2 basic types of a feather?  Vaned feathers which cover the exterior of a bird’s body and Down feathers which are underneath the vaned feathers.  There is also a third rare type called a Filoplume.  It is hairlike and  grows along the fluffy down feathers in some birds.

What do you do when you see a bird feather on the ground?

The Tree Feather

There once lived a tree in a very magical land called Potolgold.  Now this tree grew beautiful colored leaves but no birds would land on its branches.

Without birds and their nests, the tree began to shrivel and die.  This troubled the Irish Queen who also lived in the magical land of Potolgold.  You see the Queen loved all the birds and nature.  It brought her great joy to hear the birds sing, touch the flowers in bloom and see the tree leaves dance in the sun and wind.

One fine Spring day, the Irish Queen got an idea.  She decided that if the birds could see her sitting on the branches of this fine tree, they would surely join her.  On the first day, she had trouble getting comfortable as the tree’s branches were a bit prickly.  She did not see any birds but she did not give up!

On the second day, the Irish Queen wore her most lovely green gown and brought a bag of bird feathers she had collected.  The feathers made the tree branches much more comfortable and did not snag her beautiful gown.  Soon two or three birds started to land on the branches of the tree near the feathers.

On the third day, a whole flock of birds landed on the tree.  (You see a small, gentle breeze had come up during the night blowing the feathers the Queen had brought onto all the branches of the tree).   The tree came alive and all the prickly needles fell off all the branches and started sprouting feathers!  The Irish Queen was so excited that she started clapping her hands in jubilation!  At this same moment, the birds grew feathers the same color as the tree’s leaves!

The birds now sit on the tree’s branches and build nests with their young.  The tree grows stronger and taller each day in the land of Potolgold.

All it took was a kind Irish Queen, a few soft bird feathers and a little Irish magic!

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Fantastic Feathers

I started creating these feathers in 2014.  The one above uses a white gel pen, wax pastels and paper from one of my Gelli-prints.

For the red one on the right, I used a white gel pen and a Gelli-print.  The one on the left, I used a gold gel pen, black pen, Gelli-printed paper and Prismacolor pencils.

The black paper really makes these stand out!  I hope to make more of these in 2015.