A Hemming Bird

Today, I decided to challenge myself by limiting my collage papers for creating a weird bird.

These are the materials I chose, some were sitting on my table from previous projects:

I cut out shapes and played with patterns until this Hemming Bird appeared from the coat factory family…

He (or she) was looking a little disheveled, so I added a few details to make him look im-pressive… hehe!

I hope your day “shapes up” to be extra wonderful!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

P.S.  The weather is finally warming up in the Pacific Northwest!  Time to ditch the coats!! YAY!

Four Square Ball

I remember this game from elementary school – Four Square.  It was a simple game played with a rubber ball and 4 players in 4 quadrants.  Did you play this game as a child?

When I was experimenting with watercolors yesterday, I made these four squares and they reminded me of this game:

Afterwards, I decided to make it into my own “game” or challenge of sorts…And add a different art medium on top of each one… any ideas?

I will post my finished squares later this week.

Happy Monday!

Cheers!! 🙂

Use Your Noodle – 2

I recently created this doodle in my sketchbook and showed it to a friend who told me it looked like pasta.  🙂

It was really great practice for me in slowing down and learning control of my watercolor brushes when I painted it.  I used a size 2 and 6 Black Gold by Dynasty that I purchased at Dick Blick.

Here are before and after photos:

I don’t think I would have painted it in watercolor if it wasn’t #WorldWatercolorMonth

Sometimes challenges are good for stretching my creative muscles!  😉

And speaking of muscles and pasta, I’m off to the lake for a vacation to use my water noodle so I have decided to take a short blogging break.  I will still post my weird bird next Wednesday so I hope you will check in for a smile.  🙂

I plan to continue creating a watercolor each day and will be posting on Instagram as art_jill_kuhn so I hope you come check it out!

And if you want one more idea to use your noodle, check out this Noodle Fish I created last July!

Wishing you a HAPPY day!  🙂

And The Winner Is?

Thank you to ALL who shared your opinion yesterday I my bookmarks!  🙂

I currently have a tie for the vases and the wine and cheese.  So I’m posting them in color to let you choose your favorite once more:

They both look like a party or celebration is about to begin…

I look forward to hearing what you think!

Cheers!  🙂

Chairs, Vases or Wine?

I recently started subscribing to Uppercase Magazine – for the creative and curious –  check out my link to learn more about this beautiful publication:

http://uppercasemagazine.com/

They also have a free weekly newsletter you can sign up for at the above link!

I wanted to participate in their call for bookmarks but their deadline is fast approaching on January 31st!  Which of my 3 designs do you like best?

The chairs, flower vases or wine and cheese?

I plan to color them with color pencils.  I will show you my colored versions soon!

Thanks for your help!

Cheers!  🙂

A Painted Bird?

Today is Draw A Bird day so I wanted to draw a bird with LOTS of color!

I discovered this common finch called a “Painted Bunting” whose colors look like he was painted with a child’s set of paints:

I did not paint this artful bird, instead I used color pencils and Tombow markers.  I added some collage for fun.  After all, a bird this colorful should be attending a party!

They sing a lovely song too!  Check out this link if you’d like to learn more about them:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Painted_Bunting/id

Happy Birding!  🙂

P.S.  This month’s Draw a Bird Day is hosted by Kerfe and Nina @MethodtwoMadness  Be sure to check out their birds!  🙂

Yes We Can

I was feeling a little like this “stuffed bird” after our Thanksgiving meal today:

This got me thinking about how thankful I am for everything!

After going without heat and electricity for 5 days, I am so much more aware of what I have and often take for granted.

This got me thinking how I can give back to those who are struggling to make ends meet – especially around the holidays. I don’t know about you but I sometimes get overwhelmed by all the ways I could help others so I wanted to do something simple.

I have decided that every time I go to the grocery store, I will buy one extra CAN of food to give to my local food bank.  I challenge you to do the same!

I believe that together we CAN make a difference!  😊

 

Friday Flowers

I visited our local Farmer’s Market the other day and bought myself this fall bouquet of flowers:

A real bargain at $5.00!  I loved the colors so decided to try to paint it in watercolors.

I started with a quick sketch in charcoal to get a feel of the shapes:

Next, I sketched loosely with a black Micron pen on 140 lb cold press paper:

I added my first layer of watercolor which started to make it sing:

And completed it with one more layer to add a little more shading:

I normally would not take on this challenge of painting such complicated flowers but thanks to ALL of you for your encouragement, I decided to give it a go – so these flowers are for you, my FRIENDS!

Happy Friday!  🙂

It’s A Real Hoot!

Today is “Draw A Bird Day,” that Laura at Create Art Everyday has continued as an art challenge on the 8th of each month.  Any medium is acceptable and all bloggers are welcome to participate.  I encourage you to do so!  🙂

I wanted to create something a little different for my bird.  Since it is the month of October, I decided on an owl.

I started by drawing the outline of my owl with a Zig writer pen and coloring it with Neocolor wax pastels:

I used a photo reference from a beautiful book I purchased from Amazon called, “Owls,” by Marianne Taylor.  It has “owl-mazing” color photographs in it!  I chose my own color palette of course…

I softened my neocolors with water and added white highlights to the eyes with a gel pen:

Lots of color!  Just what I like – it’s a real hoot, don’t you think?!

Happy Bird Day!  🙂

Funny Faces

I decided to participate in Teresa Robinson’s 1st selfie art day challenge today.  Be sure to check out her AWESOME blog on wordpress at One Good Thing!

It worked out well for me because I wanted to try Lynn Whipple’s face assignment for this month in the online class, Year of the Spark!

The assignment for the class was to draw one half a face of two different people on one piece of paper, like below:

I drew a man’s face on one side and a woman’s face on the other on the one above!

Next, I cut the paper in half and then matched up different halves to create a whole face!  Below is one wild and crazy guy:

I created half of my face and used it in the faces below – can you find silly, old me?  I numbered them for you:

Number 1 is above.

Number 2 is above.

And above is number 3.

Recognize anyone else you know?!  LOL!

Happy Creating!  🙂