A Jolly Old Elf…

This weird bird decided to dress up for the Holidays!

I’m sure Santa needs all the help he can get this time of year…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

May your Holidays be filled with laughter and good cheer!

Art Journal Prompts – Part 2

I wanted to show you the page in my art journal that I completed from Monday’s post:

Below is the photo from Monday of my unfinished page Art Journal Prompts:

I enjoyed a trip down “memory lane” and found this photo of me ice skating with my dad when I was almost 5 years old. (Notice the old cars in the background!)

I encourage you to create your own art journal prompts! I hope you share with me what you do!

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!

Where Is Spring?

It is hard to believe that Spring will be here in two months where I live in the Pacific Northwest!

We recently got about a foot and a half of new snow!  So pretty when it is fluttering down from the sky but not so pretty when the snow plower piled the driveway with a huge berm yesterday…Ugh!

I finished my doodle from last week!  YAY! 😀 If you didn’t see that post, you can find it here:  A Little Doo-da-ling

It was super fun to work on it a little each day when I had a few minutes:

And the finishing touches:

I added two colors of color pencils to complete it.  I’d love to hear what you think!

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

Collage Exploration

I recently purchase this book from Amazon:

It has some fabulous ideas that have sparked my imagination!

Such as this collage exploration:

It was inspired by the recent “winter storm” we got over the weekend!

Yesterday, I did some organizing of my art supplies.  It inspired me to create these three collages that I glued in my art journal:

Each collage above has hand-stitching, can you find it?

Cheers! 🙂

Hot And Cold

My sister-in-law made us these beautiful potholders that arrived in the mail yesterday… just because! ❤️  A wonderful surprise. 🙂

 

I just love the colors and patterns and stitching… I’m not sure I can use them for hot foods as they are too pretty!

And speaking of cold… we woke-up to 8 inches of new snow yesterday morning! 😮

I guess winter isn’t done with us in the Pacific Northwest.  Time to make a homemade pot of hot soup on a cold day!

Cheers! 🙂

A Turkey In February

My hubby took this photo of a turkey that was hanging around at the church next to his office yesterday.

It isn’t every day you see a turkey in a church parking lot…

Apparently, the turkey wasn’t aware that they aren’t allowed at church because they use FOWL language.  Haha!

I see a future weird bird, how about you?  😉

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Cheers!  🙂

Cloudy Weather

I created this yesterday in my art journal with a new technique I learned from Carla Sonheim.  It says, “Cloudy with a chance of rainbows.” 🌈

I used watercolor paint and a scraper to create this rainbow effect. I added my own touch with some gelli-printed deli paper clouds at the top of the page with a glue stick.

Our cloudy weather is producing lots of snow in the Pacific Northwest!

Happy Monday!  🙂

The Polar Bear Plunge

A local lake has an annual, “Polar Bear Plunge” on New Year’s Day.  Too cold for me to plunge into that freezing cold water…

So I decided to take a different approach with a warm-up blind contour drawing of a polar bear wearing a bikini… hehe!

Before I dived in with this one and added some handmade stenciled snowflakes in my art journal…

Hope it gives you a smile today!  🙂

Cheers!

Mr. Snowman…

I wanted to try building a snowman (or perhaps a snow bird) in our yard yesterday… but the snow was too fluffy.

Here I am after falling into the snow… luckily, I saved the camera! Haha!

So I came inside and drew a snowman instead!  I started with a blind contour drawing to warm-up…

And added a little watercolor.  They look kind of cute in their childlike way.  🙂

I was now ready to create Mr. Snowman:

I started by stenciling the background with acrylic paint and added a little glitter.  Glued my gelli-printed papers to my paper.  Added pencil shading and detail.  Finished it with pan pastels to soften the ground.  I believe we are never too old to build a snowman!!

Cheers with a nice, hot cup of cocoa!!  🙂