Recovering….latest projects

The recovery from surgery is progressing. Each day is a little better. The three week check up is scheduled for Wednesday and everything is looking good. There is still some soreness and fatigue, but that is part of the “New, New Normal”.

My yard is full of birds. We have been putting out seed blocks, suet , thistle and of course the hummingbird feeders. The fountain is attracting a few birds, but not the hummingbirds everyone else seems to have. Because of the massive seed consumption, we have learned how to make our own seed blocks. Hubby gets the large bag of seed at Costco, and we make and put out two blocks a day. I think those guys would eat more if we put it out! SO far we have seen house finches, sparrows, Abert’s Towhees, Curve bill thrashers, Gila Woodpeckers, cowbirds, White Wing doves, Mourning doves, Inca doves, grackles, verdins, Anna’s Hummingbirds, and Black Chinned Hummingbirds. They are really fun to watch, there are always little dramas going on. I am very surprised at the White Wing doves, they are very aggressive and chase the other doves away from the seed. I had always heard how peaceful doves are.

Here are photos of the latest Dreamcatcher projects. The third of three “black and whites” is a wolf.  Then I bought a couple of pieces of leather to try it out. Here is the first of two, the baby Great Horned Owl depicted in “Whooo R U?”. Had to learn a lot about leather to do this project. I used a ground first, then did the owl in watercolor and colored pencil. You should have seen the guys face at the leather store when I told him I would be using colored pencil. He looked at me like I am mentally challenged…..he said acrylic or leather dyes will work best. If you are a normal person, that would be true! But he had no idea that I wanted to try the new Daniel Smith Watercolor ground to see if it would really work on leather. As you can see it works really well! So what if one person in the world thinks I am crazy, Ok, well more than one…..but we won’t go there!  I am going to check to see if there is a product to stiffen it a little more, otherwise, I am very happy with the project and am trying to decide what to put on the second one! If you saw the Raven Dream Catcher, the very first project, you will notice that I have improved and refined. There is definitely more feathers and beadwork along with the placement getting better. Of course, I could not drive yet while working on the raven, and had not thought of getting beads before the surgery. But they can always be added later!

The Parrots and cats have been VERY quiet lately. I wonder what they are up to? Hmmmmmm……….if I find out, you will be the first to know! Stay tuned!

Advertisement

Bald Eagle WIP – Done!

So………………. I am still waiting for some responses for the Kickstarter project, and had time to finish this eagle! Hope you enjoy! Miss Libby is such a beautiful subject! The Kickstarter Project voters have made their wishes known, and the next painting subject will be “Burrowing Owl”, so stay tuned folks! Would like to get Burrowing Owl going and completed in time to have prints and cards for the Show Nov 30 thu Dec 2, so have to get cracking!!!

This is a wonderful time of year in Arizona, the weather is cooling off, we can finally go outside without getting heatstroke! Whoooo Hooooo! Don’t have to wear oven mitts to drive…….No one is frying eggs on the sidewalk……..butterflies are making an appearance since they are not afraid of getting melted….can touch the mailbox without getting third degree burns……..

Eagle WIP…eye,eye, sir!

The ayes have it, no make it eyes…….OK….the eyes are in, so it is ALMOST done! Just still playing around with the background and touching up details, LOL. Have you heard that one before? Will probably keep touching up until Candy yells at me to step away from the drawing!

Kickstarter Fans…..am still awaiting info from a few people, as soon as I get that info, the brochure and photos can be printed. So hang in there!!!

Bet you are wondering why it is so quiet here today, LOL. I just fed the flock and everyone is too busy pigging out to make much noise…..only sounds of happy little piggies with wings! They are all starting to chew like mad right now, so I am filling their cages with toys and paper. My floor looks like a Papier-mâché factory right now. The usual 4 sweeping/vacuuming’s a day are just not working, looks like 8 to 10 until the chewing subsides. Of course then the floor will be covered with down and feathers…….or food and nut hulls………hmmmmmmmmmmmmm what ever was I thinking, guess it never stops, LOL!

Eagle Charcoal………cont.

This one is moving along pretty well…..OR……..I blinked again, LOL, not sure which! OK, so I was a little confused about the date, but my Kickstarter project closes today! I was only one day off. So am trying to sneak in a blog at the end of the week in case I am too busy putting rewards together and mailing stuff next week. I will try to take a little time off to finish Libby, because this is one of the projects that nags at me when I am not working on it. It calls my name and says, “Get back here to your desk and work!” Maybe that is one of the parrots! Whoever it is, wish they would quit nagging, LOL.

BTW, the weather here is GORGEOUS!!!! Finally cooled down into the 90’s yesterday, and today is in the mid 70”s. Some storm from California moved in, and cooled us down, we had a little rain, some nice breezes, the air is clean, and it is amazing. The birds are loving having all the doors and windows open and are looking to spending some outdoor time. The drawing is calling, so see you soon with the next installment!

Charcoal Bald Eagle WIP

Whooooo Hoooooooo, the Kickstarter Project made the goal, and tomorrow is the last day! SO THANK YOU to all of my project backers!!!!!  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1030315317/arizona-native-bird-painting-series

This is the start of my latest Work in Progress, a charcoal of the BEAUTIFUL Libby, education eagle at Liberty Wildlife. I hope to finish it this week as the Kickstarter project is closing, and I need to do at least one more painting in this series to have enough time to get it printed for the Audubon show In December. So the next couple of months will be very hectic, as I get all of this STUFF printed and all the mailings done for the project backers. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of blogging going on, hope you will all stay with me for the new WIP. Meanwhile back at the WIP, this is Charcoal on gray Canson Paper. I use white and black charcoal, hopefully using the paper for the some of the mid tones. you will not recognize the paper by the time I finish with this, LOL!

Ripley, the African Grey has been visiting for the last ten days, I hope he hasn’t transferred any new vocabulary words to the flock! He is quite the character. The home flock is VERY vocal, but mostly just LOUD junglelike  noises, Ripley is verbose with a few sound effects. He did take home the cat’s plaintive begging meow, and now my friend Mary keeps looking for the cat. I still miss the sound of elk bugling waking me up in the morning, maybe I need to take the flock next time and see if anyone will pick up that sound!

How did it get to be October already?????????? Can someone please explain how the speed of time increases directly proportional to the amount of stuff that needs to be done, or is it directly proportional to your age? Did anyone write an equation for that? So the more that you need to do, the less time you have to do it in????? Hey, I will blink my eye and it will be time to blog again! See you with the next update!