MY FAVORITE BIRDS SERIES

Scrub Jay  8" x 8"  acrylics

I have watched and admired birds for as long as I can remember.  When I was in high school I had to stay at home after a minor foot surgery.  We had a pair of binoculars and I noticed something out the window.  It was a scrub jay!  I was blown away by his beauty and antics.  Now that I am hearing about the loss of so many birds around the world I am so saddened.  So I decided to paint a series of paintings of my favorite birds. 

I have been exploring gelli plate printing and mono printing lately, so decided to see if I could combine my love of birds with the fun of this kind of printing.  This is an 8" x 8" cradled wood panel which I had a lot of fun pouncing acrylic paint colors with sponges, stamps and foam stamps which I made myself.  I then painted this Scrub Jay and traced around the leaves.  I then painted the negative space around the leaves with white acrylic paint. It seemed too plain so I filled in the bottom spaces with stripes and dots here and there.  I am pleased with the way it turned out.  Available on my Daily Paintworks Website  $150 + shipping & tax

California Quail    acrylics   8" x 8" cradled panel

When I was in high school, we lived in the country.  I used to watch the quail wander around our two acres.  They would chatter and scamper through the redwood trees.  There was always a male on guard bobbing his head with that black feather on top, watching for danger.  I miss seeing them.  I painted this quail on top of a stencil design sponged on the background in acrylics.  Available on my website $150 + shipping & tax

side view of the Quail painting

Come back again to see more in MY FAVORITE BIRDS SERIES or visit my website at: www.RhettsStudio.com

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Notice: Only the artist has the right to reproduce her original work.  Please do not copy without permission.  Copyright protected. 

Crow Show

 Crows are fascinating birds and sooooo smart.  They really catch my imagination and I love painting them!

The Sparrow Art Gallery in Sacramento is reviving the tradition of hosting a show on crows. I am pleased to have a painting in this show.  It is a mixed media work entitled  "Six Rowdy Crows".  I painted 6 paintings on water color paper, cut them up and glued them to a canvas which I had painted with mixed media.

The Sparrow Art Gallery is located inside the ARTHOUSE on R Street, first floor in Sacramento.  1021 R Street.   phone: 916-382-4894. 

The show runs March 10 through April 6, 2018.
Open Tues-Fri 10 am - 6 pm
Saturdays 10 am - 4 pm and Sundays 11 am - 4 pm

Baby Mourning Doves Mixed Media

Baby Mourning Doves

Here is my second attempt at doing an ink and pan pastel drawing / painting.  Since it uses acrylic inks painted with a brush and then pan pastels on top.... would you call it a painting or a drawing?  Hummm.

Well, I guess I will just called it a Mixed Media piece.  My reference photo is below.  These mourning doves find our carport perfect for their nests.  This is the 2nd brood this year!  Momma is very watchful of her babies.

My photo reference from my own photo. 

Here is my oil painting from the mixed media project below. 

Drawing a Mourning Dove using acrylic inks and pan pastels

A MIXED MEDIA PROJECT

This has been an interesting project for me.  I am trying some new techniques and using some new materials I have never used before.  I am still struggling learning to accurately draw birds.  They are more difficult than one would believe. I bought an online class on Craftsy on drawing birds.  The teacher is a very fine bird illustrator and he had us using acrylic inks in many layers.  This creates a beautiful, stained glass-like affect. Wonderful! We have Mourning Doves nesting in our carport every year.  Last year there were 5 broods of nestlings!  They are so cute to watch as their parents care for them.  Mourning Doves are so sweet.  I just love them and thought I would  try my hand at this bird. 

Before we began we made a value drawing and graphed it out to transfer to our final paper.  I learned that I really did not observe the bird very well.  John Muir Laws says he often makes the head too big and yep, so did I.  Amazing how you learn from your mistakes.  I also wanted to slim down the bird a little as I thought she was too fat and puffy.  This was probably another mistake.  I should have followed the photo more closely.

   

Photo by Pandeeswaran Bhoopathy
Thank you to Pandeeswaran for letting me use your photograph.  He is an amazing photographer!

Here is my value pencil drawing from my source.

I made a photo copy of my drawing and then graphed it out to transfer to my mixed media paper. 

This is the beginning stages of inking my drawing.  I used very thin, pale ink.  

The final stages of inking. 

I decided to add a branch under my bird, but the source photo did not show me the feet.
This made it very difficult.  I am not very good at drawing feet without a source.
So I searched and searched for a photo that might show me a Mourning Dove in this position
where I could see the feet.  But I did not have much luck,
but I finally figured out what to do which you can see in the final photo. 

I was not really very happy with my results.  I felt the bird looked like a pine cone
(a quote from John Muir Laws) because I had drawn every feather!
 A big no no.  So what could I do?  Well I decided to go over my drawing with pan pastels.
They are amazing pastels.  I have worked with stick pastels for years,
but these new pastels are amazing.  They are very transparent and can be put
over the inks making a softer look.  
Doves have a softness to the feathers and the pan pastels really made the dove
look nicer and smoother.  I loved it!

I wanted to add a soft background, so I decided to try my hand at using the pan pastels.
Here is my effort as I was progressing with this.
The pan pastels are so soft and create a fuzzy, soft background.

So here is my mostly finished project.  For a first project using this technique, I am satisfied, but feel I have much more to learn.  But that is a journey I am willing to work toward improving.  And I had fun doing it!

RESOURCES: 

www.johnmuirlaws.com/

    John is an excellent teacher and has some great bird (and animal) drawing lessons on line. Check his website out.

www.craftsy.com

    Drawing Birds in Brush & Ink with George Boorujy

    George is a very fine bird illustrator and this is an excellent class. 

More ACEO Drawings in Mixed Media- Cats - Trees and More!

Bird Watching

I have been exploring more small ACEO drawings in black & white.  So what is an ACEO you ask.  It is a small work of art - just 2.5" x 3.5".
I have mine matted to fit an 8" x 10" frame.  Drawing these tiny works has been fun.  I have been exploring using white charcoal, black and white ink pens.  A variety of subjects is always a challenge to draw so small.

CATS
My kitties give me endless subjects to draw and paint.  I especially like it when they are sleeping or sitting very still.  Lacey enjoys watching birds through the window at our bird feeder.  The birds seem to know he can not get at them!
 Leo, my striped tabby cat, gets into some of the most crazy positions!  He likes to sleep in an old chair in our living room on his back.   What a character he is!

Sleeping Kitty

Christmas Truck

About to Rain

OLD TRUCK

Curve

This old truck at a fruit stand was all decorated up with garlands, of flowers and wreathed.

Goose

Speckled Bird

All Alone

ACEO BLACK & WHITE Drawings

DRAWING IN BLACK AND WHITE

Above Monterey Bay  SOLD

I have been exploring drawing with a variety of mixed media including white ink, white pastel and pencil, black and brown inks and other pens.  It is interesting to see what a colorful scene looks like using just these medias.  I am working for a good NOTAN design and practicing for a possible painting as well.  I have been influenced by Vincent Van Gogh's drawings after reading Irving Stone's book "Lust for Life".  Vincent was an amazing observer of nature and used his pens magnificently!  

The drawings are small ACEOs.  An ACEO stands for "Art Card Edition Original" and they must always be to the standard size 2.5" x 3.5" a little bigger than a business card. Collectors are putting these into binders as well as framing them.  

Collectors trade these ACEOs like trading cards.

My drawings are on a variety of papers,  usually grays and dark greens.  I have some of them in auctions on eBay and on Daily Paintworks.  Below are a few I have been working on lately.  
If you would like to buy one of these contact me.  

Each of these have been matted to fit an 8" x 10" frame. 

You can click on an image to view it bigger. 

Calla Lilies in Pacific Grove - ACEO  - SOLD

Splashing Swan  - ACEO

Sunset #1 - ACEO

By the Sea -  ACEO

Trip to Monterey Bay And Moss Landing - Boats & Sea Otters!

I really enjoy the Central California coast.  The smell of the sea, the sound of the waves and the seals and the flight of birds in the air.  We go to the Monterey Bay beaches as often as we can.  It is always difficult to leave.  While there last week we spotted a number of sea otters just off the dock in Moss Landing.  

I did not have time to paint this trip, but I have painted there in the past.  Here is one of those paintings:

Moss Landing Bird Haven    oil

I call this "Moss Landing Bird Haven"  This is a great place to go bird watching.  There is a power plant in the distance and many pleasure and fishing boats dock there as well. 
You can buy this painting on Daily Paintworks.

Moss Landing is just west of Monterey, CA.  There are many interesting things to look at there including Elk Horn Slough which is a haven for birds, seals and other aquatic sea life. 

Here are some photos I took on this trip.  Can you see a future painting here?
The day was very overcast and threatened rain.  It made the colors almost look like a black and white photo.  The tide was way out when we were there.  

Geebes are one of my favorite birds.  They have such elegant long necks and swim so gracefully.  Now you see them, now you don't!  They disappear into the water instantly!  There were lots of them at Moss Landing on this trip.  So wonderful to see!

I hope you get to go to Moss Landing one day.