Christmas Bird ~ mixed media

This is my rendition of a Christmas bird. Trust me, it's one of a kind. I tried several ideas out on this little birdie while in the process. For instance, I added quilted fabric to his body. I found an old pillow sham which was sacrificed for the cause. Also I dipped into my vast collection of bird feathers and used those to embellish the breast. I created a makeshift piping bag from a plastic storage bag and piped the branch with modeling paste. I used my waxed paper faux batik technique to make the leaves and the tail and wing feathers. Walnut ink was used to tone the waxed paper rather than India ink and the background was also toned with walnut ink. Hope you like. I like it.

Alcohol Ink on Sculpted Paper

I've planned on trying this for months and finally got to it the last few days. This is sculpted paper on Yupo Col Mitchell style (link) using tracing paper and gel gloss medium. The little bird was cut from Yupo and glued in place with Mod Podge. I wish now I had taken a photo before I applied the ink so you could see the sculpt work. This is only about 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is really too small a format to get terribly creative. I just wanted to see if I could do it at all. I've said many times how I love to add texture to my work and this is certainly one exciting way to do just that.

Sketching Crows

We've had an abundance of crows in the park this year and I enjoy watching them interact. All the posturing that goes on and some seem to be holding conversations with each other. Intimate conversations. Backs hunched, heads close together...I can almost imagine them whispering secrets

only crows can share. They are such smart birds. I wonder if they gossip. One would think so watching them. I've spent time sketching these crows while I sat on my sofa and watched them out my front windows. I thought I'd share a few. They might find their way into a painting or two. Who knows.

                                                                               

Red Screech Owl ~ WIP 2

Please disregard the odd shadow in the upper righthand corner of the image. I just noticed it. It won't be there when I post the final.

I think this is close to complete. There is still work to be done on the birch trunk but overall I'm fairly satisfied with my first attempt at an owl. I did run into a problem with the background. In a spot near the owl's head my w/c paper grabbed the paint and created a dark 'blob' that I could not blend nor remove so I decided to go much darker in that area to cover it. I feel I was able to balance this by adding an equally dark area to the birch trunk in the opposite corner of the comp.

My palette consists of Quin. gold deep and light red for the bulk of the feathers, burnt umber mixed with indigo for the other markings on the bird. My background is straight DaVinci Payne's grey and the birch bark is made of up of various mixtures of all this palette's colors.