A Beacon

Today’s weird bird has a lighthouse beak that is a beacon for shore birds…

I hope this patchwork of imagination gives you a smile that lights your face!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!!!

Cheers! 🙂

Printing Imperfections

I haven’t printed with my Gelli-plate in awhile so I decided to take out my 5×7 inch plate the other day.

I wanted to experiment combining colored inks with fluid acrylics. I also added an acrylic glazing liquid.

I recorded my colors in my art journal with a pencil drawing of my paint and ink containers:

I started by printing some Ginko leaves. I normally add the paints directly to the Gelli-plate and mix them with my brayer but it wasn’t working so well with the inks so I started using a paper plate to mix them.

When the brand name logo of the paper plate started showing up on my leaf prints as you can see in the photo above, I decided to use a plastic paint palette.

The paint palette had left over acrylic paint on it but I discovered the uneven surface gave an amazing print:

It is always fun when printing imperfections lead to wonderful new ideas!

I took a 3/4 inch square punch of each of my prints and glued them in my art journal:

Now I have an idea for my October Square-A-Day project! I can’t wait to show you.

Cheers! 🙂

Primary Fun

I’m enjoying the assignments from my online class, Creating Simple Characters with Nelleke Verhoeff.

It was primary fun to color these characters with yellow, red and blue color pencils:

I encourage you to draw characters as things from your imagination!

Cheers! 🙂

A Flutter of Fashion

I bring you a flutter of fashion for today’s weird birds!

The spotlight focuses on Barbara in an old odd-fashioned frock:

Shiela is out on-a-limb with this ensemble:

And lastly, Petunia poses in a favorite party pinafore:

I hope you enjoyed this little fashion fun today…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

September Square-A-Day Project

Hello Friends,

I hope you are enjoying my daily art squares as much as I’m having fun creating them!

I tried to tell a story in each art square with watercolor or Copic markers and a touch of collage. Sometimes I added a little Micron black pen too.

My stories for September’s square-a-day project are simple, something I did or saw or felt for that day.

I was inspired by the artwork in this book by Roxanne Evans Stout:

I hope you share favorite squares that may inspire you in your own stories…

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. In case you are wondering, square #17, the words say, “Ferris Wheel.” It was the name of a paint sample. I thought it looked like a child’s name. Our local fair occurs in September. 😉

Petals Fade

We had a sunny day mixed with rain yesterday. I took this photo of a rose bush in my yard.

I thought it was beautiful how the rain droplet was held within its petals like arms holding onto the end of summer.

It inspired me to write a haiku:

Last bloom before frost?

Petals fade but one remains…

Unfolding with hope.

May you find hope in the beauty that surrounds you.

Cheers! 🙂

Professor Smudge

Today’s weird bird was inspired by an online class called, “Creating Simple Characters.” The class is taught by Nelleke Verhoeff from the Netherlands and hosted by Carla Sonheim. Nelleke is known by her illustrations, “Red Cheek Factory,” and likes to give her characters red cheeks!

One of the assignments was to create faces with expression by smudging charcoal on your paper and then erasing it with a soft, rubber eraser. These faces appeared for me, I used Pan Pastels to give my characters red cheeks:

Of course I had to try a bird!

Professor Smudge teaching Family Life Etiquette…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

Nature Inspired Doodles

Remember my nature inspired watercolor pumpkins and leaves that I posted last week:

I enjoyed adding doodles with ink and white gel pen:

It was so fun that I did another page of leaves with a couple of mushrooms:

And a page of seed pods:

Nature photos from Pinterest inspired my patterns but my imagination created my doodles!

Yesterday was the first day of Autumn…

It was sure in the air! Aren’t the reflection of the clouds on the lake amazing?!

Cheers! 🙂

A Typewriter Bird

Today’s weird bird is a little off key…

A Typewriter bird is rarely seen anymore, only during extreme “white outs” does this bird return.

Do you remember this shifty bird?

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

A September Surprise

I wanted to show you my September square-a-day project for the first 12 days of this month.

I am limiting my art medium to watercolor or markers and a little collage.

Like finding the toy in a box of Crack Jacks, each square holds a collage surprise, can you find it?

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂