Whoa! Who Turned Up The Freezer?

Yesterday, it was unusually cold in the Pacific Northwest where I live…19 degrees Fahrenheit! Brrr!

It inspired me to create this silly weird bird drawing in my sketchbook:

I added color with Tombow and Copic markers:

Whoa! Who turned up the freezer? I sure wish Mother Nature would turn up the thermostat!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

Read Any Good Fiction Books?

I always enjoy hearing what fiction books YOU are reading!

• What is your past favorite book as a child?
• What did you read recently?
• And perhaps… What you just started! 🙂

Below are my answers to these questions (highlighted):

And my goals for reading books this year – I hope to read at least one book a month:

I enjoyed this assignment from Carla Sonheim in the 365 Daily Creative Practice online class.  It made me pay attention to the first sentence of a book of fiction.

After all, I do believe it IS that first sentence that truly grabs my attention!

Happy Reading!

Cheers! 🙂

 

St. Peter’s Fish

As many of you know, I love learning new things!  🙂

My recent art challenge of creating 50 fish on Instagram has left me fishing for information about this subject.

We can learn a ton on the internet but I also LOVE books!! So I purchased this book recently from Amazon:

This is a great book for “kids of all ages!”  I love all the amazing photos and also the basic information such as how fish swim.

I drew this one-liner fish, “John Dory” also known as St. Peter’s Fish from this book:

Do you see the false eye on the side of the fish?

According to legend, over 2000 years ago, St. Peter dropped a coin in the Sea of Galilee and the fish caught it.  St. Peter picked the fish up and took the coin back, leaving his fingerprints on the skin of the fish…

This is an odd-looking fish found in European waters.  It is oval with a flat body and a large spiny head.  The white boneless, meaty flesh is firm and flavorsome if cooked properly.  It is condsidered a culinary delicacy.

I hope you found it as interesting to learn about as I did.

Cheers to learning new things!  🙂

Some Strange Fish

I apologize but I was unable to create a new weird bird for today…

But I do have Some Strange Fish!

Luckily, I drew these last weekend when I was feeling better.  Coloring them was relaxing with Tombow markers and color pencils – much like this school of fish I created in 2015 –  here.

Hope these imaginary fish give you a smile today!

Cheers! 🙂

Colorful Faces

I made quick random marks in my mixed media sketchbook using watercolor and water soluble Tombow markers.  I only had a few minutes to create before I fixed dinner so I didn’t even let the page dry before I went onto the next one.  I did 10 pages in about 15 minutes.

Next, I decided to make quick one-liner sketches of faces from a magazine with ink without thinking about my backgrounds (paint had dried).  It was super fun!

Here are my 4 favorites:

Do you have a favorite?  I hope you share it with me!

Cheers!  🙂

Poking Holes

It is interesting to me how one art experiment often leads me to another…

In this case, poking holes in my paper, led to playing with circles – first with Tombow markers:

Then cutting circle shapes from a variety of papers and stamping acrylic paint with a wine cork and adding a little glitter:

And using the holes from the previous page to add an interesting layer:

I’d love to hear how an recent art experiment led you to an unexpected outcome!

Cheers!  🙂

Yep It’s Yupo

I wanted to try yesterday’s technique – the crayon resist on Yupo paper.  In case you aren’t familiar with Yupo, it is a plastic surface – polypropylene to be exact.  Watercolor doesn’t soak into the surface and sits on top.

I started with quick drawing using crayons and covered them with water soluble markers.  I knew if I used a damp paper towel over it, it would remove color so I chose a dry one which basically just softened the crayons and didn’t add much interest.  I decided to try watercolors on top as you can see on the drawing below on the right:

I discovered that I could add texture with a paper towel if the area was still wet.  So I stamped my background with a clean foam stamp to create more interest.

After the watercolor dried, I decided to add Neocolors – which are a water soluble crayon.

And another layer of watercolor to add some shadows and create depth:

I really like how interesting this turned out.  I want to continue to experiment in this medium.

Cheers!  🙂

A Christmas Bouquet

My husband wanted me to make a card for his sister whose Birthday is on Christmas Day!

So I created this Christmas bouquet:

Funny, I don’t feel like my art is very good today…maybe because I don’t feel like his family understands my art or my need to create it.

So thank you my blogging friends for your support in my art!  It means so much to me!

And as the inside of my card says, “May God bless you today and every day!”

Cheers!  🙂

What Rhymes With Weird?!

Beard!

And since today is Weird Bird Wednesday…

I have a Bearded Hat Fish to help give you a smile!  🙂

Did you know that there really is a Beard Fish?  Of course, it looks nothing like mine!  Lol!

Just thought if you were fishing for some fun, I’d throw this fish into the pond!

Cheers!!

Fiddle Faddle

I’ve been trying to put the finishing colors on my doodle that I started awhile ago in my art journal.

It reminds me of the popcorn you can buy in the store called, Fiddle Faddle.  The popcorn and peanuts are covered with gooey caramel.  Yum!   Like the popcorn, I have a difficult time leaving my doodle alone.  I keep “fiddling” with it!

Here are some of the supplies I used on this doodle:

I started with watercolor but then tried gouache, Tombow markers, Inktense pencils, watercolor pencils and Prismacolor pencils.  😉

I learned a lot from my experiment with different mediums.  I learned NOT to use a water brush as I don’t have any control with it.  (I can’t stay within the lines).  I struggled with the Inktense pencils to get them to blend with other mediums.

I also learned to trust my instincts when it came to color and NOT coloring every doodle!  I hope you check out Annie Glacken’s doodles here that she did recently in watercolor.  My favorite is her Hummingbird!  🙂

You may recall my doodle progress where I last left off that you can find here.

Here is the completion of this doodle:

I tried to vary my color by creating depth and movement in my patterns.  I would love to know what you think!

Happy creating!!  🙂