Sketchbook Project 2011

I'm A Scavenger...

Yes, I know. I failed horribly in my effort to post daily/weekly as I said I would earlier.

I signed up for the Sketchbook Project with all kinds of time left for me to finish a one page spread a week with lots of time to do each one at a leisurely pace. It seems as though a pretty butterfly must have flitted past at a bad moment and got me sidetracked and next thing you know I have 3 weeks before the deadline to send.

tsk tsk.

I've never worked on something so furiously before in my life!

I learned how to bind a sketchbook. I did this because I knew there was no way I was ever going to be able to fill all those pages in 3 weeks time and wanted a book with far fewer pages in it. I ended up with 16 full spreads, the front and back inside cover and the front and back outside cover. Had it not been for the three day extension we all got my covers would have been blank, stark raving blank.

*chuckle*

I scanned these so ignore the odd glare and shadow. My pages got a bit 'wrinkly' due to all the moisture I forced upon them and even flattening them out under my monstrously heavy old tv didn't completely help.

I will post the other half of the book on tomorrow's post.

I promise!

I Needed a Fresh New Avatar So...

I've been using a version of this guy as an avatar wherever I go but wanted a newer fresher color. Plus I wanted to make some new canvas paintings. I admit to getting a bit on a roll with it.Yes, fresh new colors indeed.

I think this guy is right up my alley. Very reminiscent of Maddie and Margo not to mention Hannah and her two daughters.

These are all done on 4"x4" stretched canvas and will be going into the shop as soon as I get proper photos of them.

I'm also wondering if these aren't truly reminiscent of the photos one would find in your High School yearbook?

I don't suppose this has anything to do with my re-union coming up in a couple short weeks?

Nah.

A Trio of Big Eyed Birds and New Chubby Houses!

In celebration of all the baby birds that have landed them selves into my life and, let's face it, my heart, I decided to do a tribute piece to them with this trio of birds. Hannah and babies Edith and Agatha.

Edith is the shy one always hanging around her Momma while Agatha can't wait to spread her wings and fly off to new places.

A new village of chubby houses. The sun wasn't co-operating very well with me and this picture looks a tad washed out. I am so looking into better options.

A couple of my favorites.

Love the little heart shaped flowers!

Hmmm, wondering what else I can get into today...

Big Eyed Birds Are Gathering Again

The party birds arrived first.With their wonderful striped Zetti hats on.Then the royalty arrived. And she without her entourage.

Sir Robin Red Breast.

And the magnificent dapper Crow.

My studio is a mess...

A Little Nest of Birdies

Last week we had some pretty fierce winds and the day after I was outside...freezing mind you...picking up all the debris the wind decided to bring to my house and lo and behold there was the beginnings of a little bird nest. I didn't look as though the construction was too far along, I hope, but I brought it into the house wet and cold.


I felt bad for the poor little bird who had spent so much time on it only to lose it to the wind.


I felt it was only fitting to let other little birdies put it to good use, at least for awhile.

I also wanted to add here that I'm quickly coming up on my 100th post and wanted to find a way to celebrate the momentous occassion. I'm thinking that I will do a give away. I need to figure out all the details of said give away but I wanted everyone to have a little heads up.

You know I've piqued your interest, hehe.

And The Birds Flew Home

These two fellows flew to their new digs over the weekend and arrived today.

Meet Horace and Blaine.

Blaine isn't always this serious, the sun was just in his face and he was squinting.

Horace was having a giggling fit at Blaine and I just managed to catch him trying to be serious.
They're so cute together. Note the birdbath in the background.
Together one last time before flying off to seperate locations.
I even tried my hand at a "Tinnie". I am soo making myself some of these. I've been saving a bunch of cans and have been using them for pencils, markers and brushes for awhile now but I seriously need them "prettified" , this one was so much fun to do.

*see the little rabbit in the background?*

A couple of bird mirrors, just for fun.

Colorful Birds Fly in From Exotic Locales

These little guys came from locations all over the world to come hang out with the local big eyed birds.

This is Rufus, he's always late wherever he goes. His mind is just not on the present moment but always thinking about his next step causing him to inevitably be late.

Owen is always the first to arrive and has a very calm and stioc air about him. He puts this down to being, although distantly, related to the peacock family.

This is Jack and he counts his exotic location as California and points further West...hmmm.

He is related to the local big eyed birds on his Fathers' side and used to be a surfer dude.

Huey, the life of the party, he's got the best sense of humour and always manages to crack everyone up! Needless to say he ALWAYS gets invited back.

Little Carl, he goes places the others' only dream about and always brings expensive gifts back.

Hanging out on the deck waiting for the bar-b-que to heat up.

Where are those mimosas anyway!

The Big Eyed Birds Have a Photo Shoot

They've been itching to get out there and get in front of a camera as they aren't the least bit camera shy and quite the hams.


I thought I would start this off with a "before" pic. This is before all that makeup is applied. I took this shortly after they were removed from the tanning bed (oven) and you can see here that a small amount of concealer (gesso) has been applied before I remembered to grab my camera. We were already in the heat of the moment here.


Here are all of the models together before the bickering started. They all thought that they were prima donnas at this point and I had to seperate them before any "cat" fights were started. We all know how ugly THAT can get.

My little blue man Maurice.

This is Howard.

And Chester.

And Louie.

Ralphie is keeping a close "eye" on things.

The End.

Bird Attack

So finally, here's the whole unvarnished truth about this story.
I was minding my own business, I swear, when I walked out my front door to go to work and out of no where this bird, attacks me:

He had been sitting in my palm tree out front and apparently viewed me as an invader. And when I say he attacked I mean it. He was actually hitting me with his little body. I was laughing so hard I could scarcely breathe...little buggar. He actually chased me down the street at one point.

When I got home from work there was this little bird out by my garage door.

Now mind you this picture was taken AFTER I moved him to a "safer place". He still couldn't get back up to his nest and I have 4 cats and 2 dogs and that's not counting how many other animals are in the neighborhood. Sooooooo, long story short, I felt I needed to get him back home. Hehehe, I still chuckle about this when I think of it.

I've got both mom and dad attacking me when I just step out the door, how in the world am I going to accomplish this? Oh did I mention they were taking turns attacking? One from the left and the other from the right one after the other. They were good.

I decide that I would put on a hat as they were usually aiming for my head, oh and then I would wear my heavy canvas coat because sometimes they missed my head and hit lower. Yeah and then I'll wear my heavy welding gloves for handling the baby. Yeah, this was going to be great!

Did I mention that it was over 95 degrees outside and the front of the house was in full sun? Ah, nevermind...

After retrieving the spider infested ladder from the backyard, I didn't know this many species of spiders would live together harmoniously on a 6ft aluminum ladder but...*shrug*, I proceeded to my destination all decked out.

Put the ladder up, ducked a few times, picked up baby bird, ducked some more, invented new swear words, laughed til I cried, placed the baby back into the nest with his other two siblings, screamed as a spider climbed up my neck, fell off the ladder onto the grass rolling, lost 5 pounds just in sweat, jumped up in time for another assault and ran for my front door.

5 minutes, I swear.

I stood there, finally, wondering what in the hell my neighbors were thinking of me now.


Oh yeah.
I did go back up with my camera and this is the best pic I could get of the nest.
I'm insane...I'm pretty sure.

They have now moved to the backyard and I see dad feeding the three hungry babies all the time. They hop along the back wall but do alot of hiding out in my pyracantha tree, they are safe there.

I've tried to find out what kind of birds these are and have had no luck. They sure are bold little buggars and I have enjoyed them.

Anyone know?