An Artful Exchange

I just love Sharon Mann’s sunny art, don’t you?

I was delighted to receive her postcard art recently in an artful exchange through the mail!

We each created six postcards, 4×6 inch size in any art medium.  (I forgot to take a photo of mine so you will have to look at Sharon’s blog). 😉

Perhaps you remember our other artful exchange?  If not you can find it here:  The Speedball Bird

I enjoy making art in this “postcard” size so I’m sure you will see more of it!

Thank you Sharon for brightening my day with your cheerful art!

Cheers! 🙂

 

Topiary Tales

Topiary tales…

Cloud shapes floating in the sky,

What weird bird am I?

There is no right or wrong answer… Lol!  I look forward to your bird names. 😉

Our grass is finally turning green and the trees are budding, Spring has arrived!  Hoorah!!

Happy weird bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

P. S.  What animals do you see in the clouds?

Painting Tulips

I am in LOVE with the flower photos and gardens of my sweet, blogging friend, Ali at The Mindful Garden!

She grows the most gorgeous flowers in her yard!!  And takes stunning photos of them too!

With her permission, I tried to paint some of her tulips yesterday in watercolor.

Here are my process photos:

Watercolor is a difficult art medium for me.  Perhaps I struggle too hard to make my flowers look “real.”  And yet, I always feel like I learn to “see” my subjects a little clearer when I try to draw or paint them.

I do hope you check out Ali’s blog!  Her gardens are always a delight to my senses!

Cheers! 🙂

Coloring Eggs

I splashed some watercolor paint around on hot press paper the other day…

It reminded me of coloring eggs as a child.

I cut some egg shapes out of my painted paper and decided to add them to my table for Easter brunch.  They will make good name plates as you can see in the right photo:

My grandma placed a few candies in paper muffin cups at each person’s table setting… it was such a fun idea that I use it too!

I had a few minutes yesterday to make an Easter sign for my table and color a few more eggs!  😉

Coloring eggs with watercolor on paper is so fun!  I encourage you to give it a try!

Cheers! 🙂

A Spring Wing-Ding

I discovered this weird bird in my backyard this week…

A Spring Wing-Ding

It was “hamming” it up in preparation for an Easter brunch!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

A Spiny Family

I enjoy giving myself little challenges when drawing… and learning more about my subjects.

Painting different colors of watercolor in my art journal helped add color to a blank page…

I then challenged myself to use mostly black pens – each pen a different variety – to draw Cactus; from the book I showed you in this post: Drawing Cactus and Succulents

According to Dictionary.com; Cactus (noun) and plural can be cacti, cactuses and cactus!  

As a definition:  Any numerous succulent plants of the family Cactaceae, of warm, arid regions, having fleshy, leafless, usually spiny stems and typically having solitary, showy flowers.

I never really thought about a “cactus” being a succulent plant!

I challenged myself to create these “succulents” with a variety of green pens:

Succulent (noun):  A succulent plant as a sedum or cactus… and as (adjective):  Of a plant – having fleshy or juicy tissues.

What I learned from this challenge for myself:

• Calligraphy pens are great to draw with…
• Going outside the color “square” is OK!
• I really do have eight green pens.
• Creating challenges makes drawing fun!
• I enjoyed learning the names of plants… must be a weird bird idea in there somewhere!

Do you give yourself challenges when you are creating?  I’d love to hear what you do!

Cheers! 🙂

Cactus and Flowers

Hello Friends,

Thank you for your good wishes for my recent surgery.  I so appreciate it!  🙂

I have been drawing Cactus and flowers in my sketchbook since my last post and coloring them with different markers such as Tombow, Copic and Artist’s Loft (an inexpensive brand from Michael’s Store).

Did you notice the paper collage for the Cactus planters?

I was excited to buy U.S. postage stamps with Cactus on them this week!

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

Drawing Cactus and Succulents

I decided to take another little blogging break as I need to have a second surgery.  Not my hip this time, thank goodness.  🙂

I had a Mammogram and the doctor found a small lump that has to be removed.  I am thankful it is not cancer!  Praise God!  It is a good reminder the importance of getting an annual Mammogram.

I recently painted a couple of pages in my art journal:

I just love the texture I got, don’t you?  I started with black gesso, added several colors of acrylic paint with a brayer and used a stencil on some parts.  I started drawing a vine with a black micron pen and flower shapes with a paintbrush and black Sumi ink.

I used leftover paint on my brayer for this page.  It was easier to draw the flowers without so much acrylic paint on the page.

I liked this first book of Botanical Line Drawing so much:

I decided to treat myself and purchase the author’s second book on Drawing Cactus and Succulents.  This book actually has the names of each plant so I can learn as I go.

I like the simple steps of illustration in both books.

Perhaps I will have some interesting journal pages to show you when I return.  I plan on joining my cat with some Cat Napping  while I heal.

Happy Creating!

Cheers! 🙂

Cat Napping

I’m amazed how relaxed my cat can be…

When sleeping on the couch like this, you see:

I wonder how he can be so unaware,

Yet seems content when I take his photo there.

I thought this was a funny pose for my cat so I had to share it with you.  If we could all sleep so soundly and comfortably.  Lol!

Cheers! :-0

Safe!

Since Baseball season is underway, my husband is a big Seattle Mariners fan…

This weird bird came out of left field today…

And crossed home “plate” just in time to be called, Safe!

Baseball Home Plate Trivia:

Did you know that prior to 1899, any round object could serve as as home base?  (At times a dish even served as home base which may have led to its alternative name, “home plate.”

In the 1899/1900 season, home base changed its shape to a 12×12 inch square to match the other bases.

The pentagon shape that is used today was developed in the 1900/1901 season by Robert Keating.  The biggest advantage of this new shape was that it made the edges of the strike zone more visible to pitchers and umpires and therefore, improved the consistency of calling strikes.

Do you think this weird bird is a St Louis Cardinal or a Baltimore Oriole?

Hope you hit a grand slam this week!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂