Eye-Popping Hoppers

Have you ever eaten a Jalapeño Popper?

Jalapeño Poppers are jalapeño peppers hallowed out, stuffed with cheese, spices and sometimes ground meat, breaded and deep fried.

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut holds the Major League Eating Record for Jalapeño Poppers, eating 118 in 10 minutes in April 2006.

For some strange reason…

Jalapeño Poppers came to mind as I was creating today’s weird birds:

Eye-Popping Hoppers

Perhaps these birds are taste-testers for a new “jelly bean” flavor, jalapeño pepper!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

10 Watercolor Squares

I am experimenting with watercolor and gouache for my “Square-A-Day” project for July since it is World Watercolor Month at Doodlewash.com

Charlie at Doodlewash has excellent creative prompts for each day but I decided to go with the flow and allow my brush (or imagination) tell me what it wants to do!

Below are my first 10 watercolor squares for the first 10 days of July:

Perhaps my inspiration will spark an idea for your art too:

1. New watercolor brush – #4 Raphael Kolinsky from Blick. First expensive watercolor brush I have purchased. I like the fine tip for tiny details like the petals on my imaginary flowers. I used gouache and added a few details with a black Micron pen.

2. Used dip pen with Saji nib to draw my sunflower and colored it with watercolor. Inspired by Susan Feniak’s  post on July 2nd.

3. Painted background in watercolor – looks like summer colors to me! Drew leaf with black .01 and .03 Micron pens using inspiration from Peggy Dean’s book, “Botanical Line Drawing.”

4. 4th of July! Ate corn-on-cob for dinner. Started by painting paper yellow, drew corn with a black Micron pen by looking at an online image. Added a little watercolor to some of the kernels. The actual corn was delish!

5. FINALLY a sunny day at the lake! I splashed in the lake and watercolors on paper. 🙂

6. Inspired by a pattern I saw in Uppercase Magazine. I painted in watercolor and added doodles with black Micron pen and a white Signo gel pen. This reminds me of summer camp and a badge earned… I never got to go to camp as a kid but I always thought it would be fun.

7. Eating creamsicle popsicles on a hot summer day! Watercolor and Signo white gel pen. It always amazes me how color and patterns takes me back in time…

8. Blueberries ripening in my yard. Love the sweetness of these blue gems! Messed up a little on the shading so added dots with a Micron pen.

9. Daddy Long-Legs – see my previous post. Nature inspires a lot of my art!

10. Wings from a Common Buckeye Butterfly – thanks Mike Powell for your awesome photo to inspire me on this one!

I hope you enjoyed reading what inspired me to create my first 10 watercolor squares!

I will post the rest of my squares at the end of July…

Happy Painting!

Cheers! 🙂

Dippity Do Draw!

I recently started drawing with a dip pen and waterproof ink and coloring my images with watercolor just in time for World Watercolor Month, hosted by Charlie O’Shields at Doodlewash.com

I enjoyed drawing these whimsical gals on ATC cards:

I learned about the dip pens from an online class from Cori Dantini, hosted by Carla Sonheim. Cori introduced me to Jetpens.com (Jet pens has great information and tutorials about a variety of pen and ink supplies).

I purchased a Kuretake Comic pen nib holder and Nikko Comic pen nib and three black inks from Jet pens.

Note: You want to make sure the pen nibs will fit the holder you purchase.

Always a good idea to create a practice sheet and test your inks to make sure they are waterproof if you need them to be!

I also purchased a Saji pen nib from Blick and a Kuretake “Zig Cartoonist” pen nib holder which is the same holder as the one from Jet Pens. The Saji nib allowed for a thicker line than the Nikko comic nib when I applied pressure to the nib.

Note: Pen nibs often come with a film over them so you will want to remove it with acetone (nail polish remover) and a Q-tip before using the nib. I learned this information from Jet pens.

Also, it is important to keep your pen nibs clean after each use. I cleaned mine with water and a soft paper towel.

I bought a pen holder for each nib but discovered this wasn’t necessary as the pen nibs are easy to remove from the pen holder.

A couple of animals showed up in my drawings:

And of course I had to draw a few “hat” birds!

I discovered that I enjoyed drawing with dip pens and permanent ink!

I could control the line with the pressure I applied to the nib. And coloring with watercolor was super fun!

I didn’t have a problem with the ink flowing into an uncontrollable puddle. I found the nibs easy to use. And they held a lot of ink.

I hope you give a dip pen and waterproof ink a try with a little watercolor fun for #WorldWatercolorMonth

Cheers! 🙂

A Firecracker

Did you know there is a Firecracker flower?

So I figured, there has to be a Firecracker bird!

This weird bird burst onto my paper just in time for the 4th of July celebration in the States on Thursday!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

And happy 4th of July for those who are celebrating!

Cheers! 🙂

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! 🙂

 

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 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! 🙂

Outside A Window

I love the view of this crabapple tree outside my kitchen window:

This photo was taken in May when the tree was showing its spectacular pink blossoms!

I decided to add a photo of it to my mixed media sketchbook as the tree inspires me all four seasons!  I colored the photo with color pencils so the flowers stood out.

And below is the Robin that I painted and showed you in my last post:

Inspiration of place can sometimes come from what we see outside a window in our home… Below is a photo of both pages together in my art journal.

What view inspires YOU, outside a window?  I hope you share it with me!

Cheers! 🙂

The American Robin

I haven’t drawn a REAL bird in awhile so I decided to try the American Robin.  

I have been observing them outside my kitchen window snacking on dried red berries from my crabapple tree.

I started with a light pencil sketch on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper before I added a wash of color:

The robins have been fluffing up their feathers to keep themselves warm since we still have winter with more snow on the way! ;-(  Apparently, the robin’s body temperatures are 104 degrees Fahrenheit so by fluffing up their feathers they keep their bodies warm.

I finished my painting by adding details with watercolor pencils:

I will be adding this American Robin to my mixed media sketchbook.  I will show you my completed page next Monday.

When I see a Robin in winter, I will picture them a little differently now.  A sauna comes to mind… perhaps there is a future weird bird here! 🙂

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

P.S.  If you’d like to see a previous post I did on a Robin, you can find it here:  An American Robin   It is wonderful to look back and see how I am making progress in my drawing and watercolor skills!