Just a water color or two

After all the weirdness of the past few MSED bird posts I decided to do something that I wanted to do. This first one is an attempt at capturing the beautiful peonies that I inherited from my sister. (I really want to take a class on technique.)

 This one is a "Tangle Pattern" doodle. The foreground pattern is called Oke and the background is called Hybrid. If you would like to learn how to draw these patterns and many more check this link out.
http://tanglepatterns.com/

I use and alter a lot of the patterns on this site when I draw.

MSED: Bird a Day #19- Floating Bird

Today's bird (or I should say last night's bird) was a collaboration between my daughter and I. She makes these really cool containers for plants and other things with old pop cans and when I told her about the challenge she offered me a can in progress and said, "Maybe you could do something with this".
So here's our floating creation.

Isn't the girl lovely? *sigh*

 It's a swan, I think. It's made from a LaCroix can; a really bad tasting carbonated coconut drink.

 With a flame!

At dusk. 

I had so much fun playing with my daughter that I didn't mind getting all those mosquito bites. (Including one on my lower lip; how does that happen?).

MSED: Bird a Day #18- Truck Trash Hummingbird

My son's truck looks like a 4 year old has been living in it for months. The floor is covered in juice boxes and gummy candy wrappers.

Boy, if you are reading this, clean out your truck and lay off the juice and candy. You'll rot your teeth out. Love Mom. xo

MSED: Bird a Day #17 - Rubber Glove Cockatiel?

I can't even say what the goal of this was supposed to be. I am almost too embarrassed to post it, but it is more shameful not to have a bird to post at all! Fail!

I'm off to create something fun.

MSED: Bird a Day #16 - Potato Bird

Wow! I think the last time I did a potato print I was in second grade! It probably looked very similar to this. Ha ha. 

Here is my Little Tweet Potato Finch. He did end up with a rather sweet face, but his back looks somewhat broken.

MSED: Bird a Day #15 - Katie's Dollar

I'm going to spend this dollar tomorrow. Then hopefully. you will be able to track it at

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/report.php?key=4fca192206196e0068df26fc979e2d3b282dc7ae311fd57b

Thanks Katie, for being a part of my art project.

MSED: Bird a Day #14 - An Oxpecker Hitches a Ride

Tiny elephant even tinier bird. This is as small as I can draw.

MSED: Bird a Day #13 - Painting With Tea

My daughter bought me a tin of black tea from Sri Lanka. So I just had to paint a native species.
I present The Red-faced Malkoha bird painted with tea.

MSED: Bird a Day #12 -Where's the Bird?

I promise, no missing bird this time, only hidden. In fact there are two birds; maybe that makes up for the missing one last post. Well, I am a day behind and I hope to make up for it soon. 

On a side note, It's been a crazy week but a good one. I have the two most amazing kids/adults on the planet and it's ok for me to think so I am their mother. Go, offspring go!

MSED: Bird a Day #11 -Right Hand Drawing

I thought about this challenge for a whole day before I started it. I had never attempted drawing with my right hand before. I was excited to try it. Here are the things I learned while doing this project.

1. My brain "felt" totally different while using my right hand

2. After about an hour it felt normal to be using my right hand to draw but not the same as drawing with my left. Totally different; for example the difference between cooking dinner and taking a shower. Does that make sense?

3. My brain said, "Make a smooth straight line" but my hand made wiggly curvy lines.

4. I draw much slower with my right hand

5. I have a much lighter touch with my right hand.

6. I like the way the lines look,  but it feels really weird not to have the control I'm used to.

7. My brain totally FORGOT to put a bird in the drawing! I think I was so focused on the execution that I forgot about the content.

Goodbye Spring

The last of the bird silhouettes, I promise... maybe.

MSED: Bird a Day #10 - Water Bird

Squirt bottle + a dirty driveway = Water Bird

MSED: Bird a Day #8 - Book Bag

I based this bird a day bag on the tutorial on curbly.com. I had this project saved "to do" from a while back and now I had the chance to get it done. I bought nothing for this project I had everything already including the really cool liner fabric.

Here are all the pieces ready to be sewn and glued together.

I almost forgot the handles! I cut them from an old shopping bag. I liked them because they were made with metal grommets. (I knew there was a reason to save all the stuff I do.) The original tute uses store bought handles.

 Glued and "clamped"and...

...with the sewn liner.

Glued and drying

All finished - sans decoration.

The bird silhouettes appear once again.

Close-up - Cutting out all the bird related words from the destroyed dictionary was, by far, the most tedious part of this project.

The inside

All tied up. I think I will hag it on the wall and use it to store my art journal pages.
If you would like to make one of your own here's a link to a video and the tutorial.
-Video-Podcast-How-to-Make-a-Handbag-out-of-a-Recycled-Book-

MSED: Bird a Day #9 - Breakfast

Tweet tweet little birds mama's gonna eat you. And no, I didn't eat the pepper corns or the bay leaves. The pears did taste slightly of pepper though. It wasn't half bad.

Did you notice? I skipped Day #8. I didn't really skip it. It is just turning into a project I want to take more time with. here's a sneak peek.

Yes, I destroyed a book! ugh! It was hard but, I figured there are many more words in a dictionary now then there was in 1980 and I have two dictionaries on my Kindle, and the last time I actually used a dictionary was probably back in 1980. The first slice of the x-acto blade was the hardest, but I think it will be worth it.

MSED: Bird a Day #7 -Flying Shadow and Light

I had so much fun doing this project it was hard to stop taking pictures. I don't think I followed directions to the tee but, way fun. And I will use my little stencil in my art journal.

MSED: Bird a Day #6 - Apple Swan

I felt slightly ridiculous doing this one what with no cheese tray to put it on.

And when I was done... Bruce bit the head off. He didn't want to eat the apple; just bite the head off. That's a boy for you.

Art Journal Page - Blustery Beautiful Day

Did I say how much I love water color?

MSED: Bird a Day #5 - Madonna in Blue

 It took 2 hours to shoot this and it's still not the way I want it. (where is my professional photographer when I need her?) I stopped shooting when it quit being fun. All the objects in this photo have special meaning to me.

MSED: Bird a Day #4

Junk Bird, found objects, arranged and left for someone to discover

Weird hu? I ended up at the middle school and you wouldn't believe the things I had to choose from!

Art Journal Page for the day

Today I have found a new love; water color. I have never used it before. I love the way the color pools and moves across the paper and how easy it is to get different intensities. I need to take a class I think.

Click image to see it larger.

MSED: Bird a Day #3

This one was out of the box for me. It is just ripped up cool paper

MSED: Bird a Day #2

I know! it isn't a bird, but it's how a bird views my favorite animal. And this doubles as one of my art journal pages. Sweet!

Acrylics color pencils and pen. I kinda like the way the paint bleed under the tape. Wish it would have happen all the way around. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

365 Make Something Every Day - Day #1: A Bird A Day

I know, birds aren't a very original art subject but they are very much part of my everyday life now that I have a feeding station right outside my window.
I'm not sure if I should publish the challenges of each day as this guy is trying to sell some books. So I'll just say this is bird #1

I made him from some really pretty note paper I have sitting on my desk and my new glitter marker

He really is tiny. What kind of bird is he?

Good and Evil

I believe that there are good and evil forces all around us. The good forces (angels, God, etc.) want us to create and do and be; to fulfill what we were put on this earth to do; to imitate the great creator Himself.  When we sit around and do nothing with our lives, the good forces light a small fire around our hearts to get us moving in the right direction. If we do nothing, evil pretty much leaves us alone; it has us. If we respond to the gentle prodding of our creator to do more, well, that's when evil panics and starts shooting spitballs at our efforts.

With that being said, my old Mac died today. The Mac with my Adobe Creative Design Suite on it. My newer Mac won't run my old Design Suite, and I m not going to fork out the major bucks to get the newer software, so that means no more Photoshop or Illustrator or Indesign, three major tools in my creative process.

But you know what? I'm not going to let it stop me! I have other tools. I may not be as proficient with pencil and paint but it will not stop me from this creative journey I've started. I know I'm headed in the right direction because I feel the devil breathing down my neck. Goodness is on my side and good always triumphs over evil. Amen

So dear friends, stick around and see what happens and I promise not to be so "preachy" in the future.
Rest in peace ol' Power Mac G4. Our time together was too short but you served me well.

My First Blog/Make Something 365

I am on a quest to be more creative. Today I decided to go to my local art supply store and see what inspired me. This is my take home.

The Nexus pens are going back; they are all dried up. I am really excited about the book though! It is "A Daily Creativity Journal 365 Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!" by Noah Scalin. The daily prompts are just what I need to get going. Hey, he already got me to start a blog.

Whimsy Dots and other art journal pages

This is a 6X6 art journal page. I used acrylic paint, stamp, pen and white gel pen. Much fun!

I'm kind of going backward in time here but these pieces are already finished and I wanted to share.

This piece is called Hot and Humid. It was really hot that day. ha ha  I used a technique that I have never used before and I loved the effect. I will most likely do this again.

Here is the first art journal page I did. It's called Morning Blessing. That sweet little bird has been a permanent fixture in my back yard ever since that day.