| Paisley Peacock ACEO |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|10:06 am] |
Another Mission 101 thing done! He's also for sale on Etsy. Click for larger.
June 6, 2009 ::: Prismacolor Marker ::: 2.5x3.5"
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| Foiled by Fowls (x-posted) |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|10:34 pm] |
Today my camera and I went for a walk up to the creek in hopes of finding some photogenic specimens. The creek's banks are relatively unsafe, so I positioned myself on the bridge. The bridge was the site of a shoulda coulda woulda moment a few years ago. It was duck stamp perfect - a male and female duck floating between snowy banks, with just enough grass sticking through to mark the coming of spring. Argh!
I was just about to move on when I saw a drake riding the swift current from the north, and then I realized his mate was just underneath the bridge. ( Cut for photos ) |
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| I Has a Stik! |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|11:51 am] |
Just one of the better shots of some sparrows I took March 21st. I wish they hadn't been up so high! They were so busy building their nest before the big spring blizzard.
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| Shoulda Woulda Coulda |
[Mar. 28th, 2009|08:03 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | birds | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sore | ] |
There's nothing quite like the disappointment of should woulda coulda moments. Yesterday morning was beautiful and sunny and it occured to me that this was the kind of day I should take my camera with me to work. But in the morning rush, it was left on the kitchen table. I was running late and I hoofed it down to the main drag as I had missed all the express buses through my neighbourhood. As fate would have it, the best opportunity I had ever had to take a photo of a robin was presented to me. He (or she) was sitting in a bare tree on the outside branches and really close to me! They sat there very still for a long time, just enough to get a few shots off. It was the kind of picture that wouldn't have had the house in the background either.
This morning I went to the same spot, but it has been snowing softly and it's pretty overcast. It was fact, treacherously slippery with the new snow and I fell backwards near the back alley. I'm not having much luck in the past two days actually, as I had my finger pinched badly by a broken restaurant chair last night. I couldn't hear any robins, just sparrow morse code and the honking of returning Canada geese. It was all for naught too, as I had forgotten to load the memory card! |
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| The Art Browser |
[Mar. 25th, 2009|06:22 pm] |
This is just so darn nifty. I wonder how long it's been around...I could really have used it when I was taking Art History. Hopefully it can help me out with my modern art history. It seems like May 5th is going to come all too soon!
We still have snow on the ground. This morning at the bus stop I thought I was imagining things, but no, I heard two robins piping back and forth. Poor little things! They're here so early. I seem to recall last year that it was pretty bad in April. I took a poor photo out the window of a robin sitting on the large stone in the flowerbed last year and I remember being worried about them. I honestly don't know how birds manage to survive so successfully sometimes! |
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| Easy come, easy go |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|01:23 pm] |
So it looks like Mr. Winter is back - the spring blizzard started around eleven and it's still snowing. I made a shovel wide trail down the sidewalk and that will have to do for now. Just yesterday I was wearing my spring coat and poking around in my parent's backyard for springy things. I even saw a bug!
A lone female sparrow is sitting in the bird feeder. My remaining budgie announced her arrival (it's his job, after all) and I kept hoping that she'd make that big leap from the rose bush to the feeder. She seems so content now, just observing everything. Maybe she's taking stock of the rose hips left on the bush. Maybe she's new to building nests and is looking for a good spot. Or maybe she's just found a spot of respite in a busy day. It's easy to forget the enjoyable solitude of winter.
I'm enjoying my quiet solitude and perusing a website called Creative Papers Online that my fellow papercutter Scott pointed out to me. Ohh! They have a lot of exciting handmade papers in a thousand colors and a thousand textures (or at least it seems that way). There are patterns I have never seen, or could even have imagined. I will definitely have to order some when I get some fun money! |
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| Spring! Is it here at last? |
[Mar. 21st, 2009|08:55 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | birds | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
Happy spring! Here's to crocuses, bunnies, lambs and things! We've had a hard winter here with few chinooks - the warm winds that blow through here - and surprise flurries like no tomorrow. I suppose weather is relative, really, because it was not as cold as some parts. Apparently today we're going to get a spring blizzard though.
Here's our new bird feeder, taken a couple of weeks ago during one of those extra snowy days. The old one was plastic and battered from several years of being in the wind. Our part of town is really windy, sometimes we'll get gusts of up to 90km/h or more. For you non-metric folks, that about 55mph or more. It finally cracked enough to be useless. This cedar one is pretty solid and loaded with two packs of suet. I haven't seen any birds at it yet...but then there haven't been many birds around. This happens every year - they seem to hunker down somewhere for winter, but when spring and summer comes, they empty the feeder daily!
In the past the feeder has attracted house finches, sparrows, pigeons, mice, wild rabbits and an orange tabby cat! Last month I saw magpies for the first time in our neighbourhood and I'm pretty sure I did hear a chickadee near the bus stop. All it takes is one bird to tell his birdie friends and we're in business!
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| Putting the Love in Lovebirds |
[Feb. 8th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
Here's a couple of cuties for Valentines Day. I plan on redoing them in my usual style when I have more time. They are for sale on Art Fire.
February 7, 2009 ::: Acrylic ::: 2.5x3.5"
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| Speaking of winter blues... |
[Jan. 18th, 2009|02:53 pm] |
Here is a blue birdie friend I don't see a lot of around here! The original is for sale on Etsy. It's also something I can cross off my Mission 101 list :-)
January 18, 2009 ::: Pencil crayon, PanPastel, Micron Pen ::: 2.5x3.5"
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| Quaker Jack |
[Nov. 23rd, 2008|05:27 pm] |
Every now and then I keep taking stabs at digital painting with my tablet and this recent photo of Jack the Quaker Parrot, owned by my husband's stepfather, presented a good opportunity. I think if I had taken the photo just an hour earlier when there was more light, it would have come out a lot better. I couldn't seem to get the graininess out no matter what I tried - levels, tone curve, brightness/contrast, hue...it just wasn't looking right.
It seems a lot of people scoff at painting over photos as weak, but it wasn't easy for me. The first try was awful. Poor Jack looked like he had been dunked in a vat of water! Yet there were some nice brushstrokes there. On my second attempt, I paid more attention to the direction of the feathers and varied the size of the brush. Finally, I merged both attempts to capture the best of both (and fill in some white jaggy areas :-))
November 23, 2008 ::: CorelPainter
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| Pink Flamingo |
[Nov. 10th, 2008|05:38 pm] |
Taken at the Memphis Zoo in October. Click for larger.
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| Bit of Parrotdise ACEOs |
[Sep. 8th, 2008|11:34 am] |
Watch for a future colour version when I re-draw the birds so that they fit in together better.
September 8, 2008 ::: Pen & Ink ::: 2.5x3.5"
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| Laughing Cockatoo ACEO |
[Sep. 6th, 2008|10:23 pm] |
Soooo...I had this whole series of parrot ACEOs planned, but I ran into some problems with scale that put it on hold for a bit. There will be more ACEOs about it forthcoming as I did get an inked version done. The cockatoo turned out to be the best bird, and I think I'll get a lot of mileage out of him. He is for sale.
September 6, 2008 ::: Cardstock ::: 2.5x3.5"
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| Party Parrot |
[Sep. 1st, 2008|12:07 pm] |
Here's a card-worthy picture, just in time for Christmas sales. I like puns as much as I do parrots. On the inside it will say "A-parrot-ly it's your birthday!". Oh, so bad :-D
September 1, 2008 ::: PanPastels and Pencil Crayon ::: 8x10"
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| Mr. Jill ACEO |
[Feb. 25th, 2008|09:17 pm] |
I liked this enough to spotlight it here. My necklace didn't get into the polisher this weekend as we visited my MIL who lives two hours away. Le sigh!
Mr. Jill ACEO by ~calzephyr on deviantART
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| Today's creative endeavour - amateur printmaking! |
[Jan. 13th, 2008|02:00 pm] |
A few years ago my ACAD friends and I became enamored with printmaking. I've always loved rubber stamps, but these were pretty hard core ideas - using resist, chemicals and big rollers. Woo! I dabbled with some simple styrofoam printing, but of course styrofoam isn't very permanent as a template.
I bought a carving kit and a piece of linoleum from the bookstore, and acquired tubes of Speedball ink ($3 on the clearance shelf at Michaels, yay!), and some carving rubber. No craft before its time however, and yesterday I finally sat down and started into the carving rubber.
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( Read more... ) |
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| Jackal Buzzard |
[Dec. 9th, 2007|02:37 pm] |
December 9, 2007 ::: Marker, Pencil Crayon & Pastel ::: 9x12"
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| Pigwigeon |
[Jun. 3rd, 2007|05:30 pm] |
I started logging how long it takes me from start to finish to make a picture. It's so easy to feel like nothing gets accomplished :-) I started Piggy, who is owned by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fledchen on May 10 and finished him up today. That's not so bad.
June 3, 2007 ::: Pencil Crayon ::: 8x10"
I also uploaded some ACEOs for a class project, be sure to check them out too! |
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| Mr. Moxie |
[Apr. 28th, 2007|04:28 pm] |
I love weekends were stuff gets done! I'm surprised, because my art hovel has been compromised. After I stuck all my art junk in the entertainment center of doom (see a few posts back) my husband decided to donate to a charity. Fine, no problem, except the charity couldn't get a truck and decided not to take it. Now my father in law wants it, and while he was able to find a truck, it turns out that the truck wasn't big enough. Ah well...
April 28, 2007 ::: Acrylic ::: 9x12"
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| Little Red Chicken |
[Apr. 27th, 2007|10:11 pm] |
If the chicken looks familiar, it's part of a bird sketch dump I posted a long time ago. I recently found a lost sketchbook and I was really quite happy about that! Some of the drawings are not as bad as I thought, so there will be more 5x7" sized pictures coming down the pipe.
April 27, 2007 ::: Marker ::: 5x7"
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