Not Afraid of Color: Pen and Ink party Friday.... owls

"Sing your song"

It's been a slow painting week with my focus drawn on home issues instead. Learning waxes and wanes though doesn't it? I did watch two very good painting videos this week, and included them.

Instead of brushes and paints I played with my sketchbook, markers, the effects of lines, color changes in pens, to create the entire image.
I'm about to run out of pages in my sketchbook which is awesome! That means I'm really using it to learn this year!!

pen and ink are instant and permanent... no looking back!!!
(DH said, those are some mighty eyebrows on the bird!)
I thought, those are interesting beads on the sun! (which I don't like in the composition but being marker, it's there now, no going back.

I kept this page open all week, and added little lines now and then, I like the words on the branch... so small you'd have to accidentally see them but I know they're there to encourage me. It's obviously some kind of flying creature, leaves and mountains but still whimsical.

I think this little buddy, might become the next larger painting... sketchbooks are also for trying out what you might want to explore later. I googled owls and there are some lovely images to guide me.

a study of gesture

I watched Shayda Campbell sketch owls, and am always amazed at her ability to take a drawing down to simple component. A heart shaped face, rounded eyes... play with gesture, add in a branch.

silly owls

I just finished an owl quilt, and I'm seeing them around the hood, so they are on my mind....

... I looked up their symbolism to humans
The gist seems to be, feminism and change... with an element of mysticism. Perfect!
I decided things have about as much power as we assign to them.

Here is the short video by shayda campbell on painting owls, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnVZ5pw7eE8) and tried her way, then moved to google images to sketch from the thumbnail images. It's good to really look at an image and see the components, the shadows, the highlights.

Now for a fun video on making cards... I love the materials she used, and ordered the metallic paint set, some white gouache and some maskit from Dick Blick.