Succulent Sketch

Sketch in a box.

Can't Resist Those Red Feet

The beautiful Red Footed Falcon.

I am sharing the steps that I went through while drawing/painting this amazing falcon.

I hope that you fall in love with his beautiful colors as much as I have.

The head was a little too chubby in my first attempt. I did like the feet though.

This one looks much better but i ran out of room for the red feet!

I decided to make use of both drawings and put them together, yet separate.

Like this -

I had to clean it up a bit and darken the lines.
It looks like this now -

And after a little PSE magic, here is the final drawing with digital paint applied.

 Of course the colors I used are a bit bolder than you would find in nature but as an artist, I am allowed that.

(aren't I?)


If so, then I am allowing a background color on this one.

No actual birds were harmed during this exercise.
I know that you are happy that I didn't chop the red feet off of a falcon while drawing this.

Birds of Prey

I decided to do one more bird.

A beautiful raptor, the Osprey.

My husband and I used to see them when we were kayaking.

They are so beautiful, so fierce if you get too close to their nests!


Pen drawing - no corrections.

A little correction with the mighty erasure.
.

And, my favorite, the color edition.

Shadow on neck is fading out.

Green Jay

 This is the origianl drawing of the Green Jay.
I jotted down the colors for reference.

 Then I added the box around it.

 I scanned the drawing into Photo Shop Elements and erased the color notations.

 Then I added lovely color - the thing that beckons our eyes to turn towards it.

I used a "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds" as my color guide.
And, of course, I used a tiny bit of artistic license with the colors...even though the bird is very bright without my assistance!

Unless I pull out pen and paper again, this is the last of the bird drawings that I have for you. Although I may try my hand at a few raptors...

Bachman's Warbler

Eastern Bluebird

Happy July 4 America!

Mr. Kingfisher

Blackburnian Warbler

Hummers

Let's Add Some Color

The outline is darker in this view.

One thing I usually do is to save a "clean" version - meaning no color, no darker or plumper lines.
Then I duplicate that version and begin to darken the lines, plump them up if they need it.
I may add a few colors to play around, if that is what I had in mind in the first place (or if I change my very changeable mind).


Which view do you like?

Must. Stop.

I can't seem to stop drawing these birds!


So.
Much.
Fun.

More More More!

More bird head patterns!

Inspiration Part 2

Another bird flew out from the Nigel Peake inspiration.

I am sure that I have at least 20 more of these to go before I get tired of them.

By the time I get to #20, it will truly be my own bird.

Inspiration Drawing

I love Nigel Peake's drawings!
He is one of my favorite artists - he seems to be totally in love with thin lines the same way that I am.

Here is a tiny bit of one of his bird drawings.

I love it so much!

I wanted my drawing to be just like his.
But I needed to use this drawing as inspiration for my own drawing, right?

Yes. That is right.

So here is my drawing using Nigel's as inspiration.

 

Love, love those lines.


I want to draw it again, varying the direction of the lines more and more.

I can see so much potential in this!

One Bird

One bird.
Several applications of color and line.


I usually draw a couple of versions of the same image.

I begin with way too many details...I can't help it.
I get started drawing and I can't seem to stop. With the small details that is.
(But I know that I can alter it digitally so I don't worry about it).


I scan the drawing as is.

Then I drag it into PSE (or PS) and begin erasing all those tiny details.
I save a stripped down image and one of (almost) every version or translation in between.

Strip Down Model. No Color.

A few small details.

Why not add more??

A black bird.

A little bit of yellow bird.

Outlined in blue black bird.

A pink bird.

A red bird.

I could have create at least a hundred more variations using the same bird drawing.

I thought it would be fun to print the stripped down bird in an art journal and add details with a black pen (or colored one for that matter).

You could print the same bird on fabric and use stitch to add details.

There are so many different ways you could use this bird image!

Photoshop Elements Collage

Maybe I should just call it a compilation of images instead of a collage...

I scanned Dover images into PSE.
Then I removed the background on all of them.
And put them all together!


I thought they would make a really cute screen for a kids shirt.

Here's one -

And here's the other one -

Originally I had another mouse in the first one - peeking out from behind the tree.
But I removed him because he wasn't printing well on fabric.
Here's a sample print.
You can see the extra mouse behind the rabbit.

I can barely see that he is a mouse.
So, he had to go.

I printed this with Simply Screen (water based screen printing paint). It is #98528 Sugar Plum (a metallic).
I bought the paint on sale at Hobby Lobby. Cheap, effective and a nice variety of colors.
But a little tacky after it dries. Not so noticable on fabric but it is on paper.
Which is where I usally use up my excess paint after a printing session.



I haven't printed the racoon screen yet.

But I have printed this lovely unicorn I sketched out.

And it's really wierd that this scanned out as this pale color.
It was printed with a #98530 OMG Pink. Which is a neon pink...
Weird, I tell you.

But the prints are not.
They are really cute!