CRE8365 day 8 - Acorn Woodpecker in Derwent Inktense

I slept in today, it was so nice to wake up then turn back over and go back to sleep, that's when I have the most interesting dreams, some of them are bookworthy :)

The dogs began to go nuts which told me someone was here so I got up, sure enough one of our friends had come by, we missed him on Christmas so he didn't get one of my Christmas cards, I wanted him to have one so I asked him to stay a little longer while I whipped out another card. I enjoyed drawing and painting this while he watched and chatted with PB.

As an artist, on occasion, someone will ask me "YOU did this?" or they might say "You DID this?" or "You did THIS?", and I say "Yes", well this time the recipient of the card watched it being created, so there was no doubt as to WHO did it :)

This went along with the theme for Christmas this year, well last year technically.... this is an acorn woodpecker.

 

I am using this as my daily CRE8365 picture.

I also created this image, it goes along with today's theme, "perspective".

http://cre8365.com/

CRE8365 day 7 - Old Rock digital sketch

Today's motivation on CRE8 is "old rock", I immediately thought of an old rock (stone), with a craggy man's face... so that's what I drew. I used a program called Sketch Guru, it's free and has some pretty good pencils, I'm still not terribly comfortable with digital drawing, but this program makes it pretty easy. This is an Android app, there is one by the same name for Apple BUT alas, it's not the same program.

If you haven't already been to CRE8365, then click the link and head on over to check it out, this site is fantastic for motivating me to create something each and everyday.

CRE8365 day 6 - Whimsical birds cuddling on a wire sketch

Today's theme is cuddle, so I made these two whimsical birds cuddling on a wire.

CRE8365 create something each and everyday

Hello fellow doodleheads and artists :)

I always want/need more inspiration (read:DEADLINES) in order to create something everyday, fortunately I ran across a site that prompts us to create something, anything at least once a day and post it to their site.

http://cre8365.com/

I got in on the first day of the year, but because they are based in Spain, it shows that I joined on the second, oh well, doesn't matter, as long as I create something each and everyday to post there. Some days I do something quick just to get it on there, other days I take more time and create something more interesting.

Here are my creations so far,I did miss a day because of bad weather interfering with my internet.

I'll do my best to post my images each day from this project. If this appeals to you, then check it out, it's fun, there are some wonderful supportive people there.

http://cre8365.com/

I also created a Pinterest for my daily creations.

http://www.pinterest.com/wrethaoffgrid/cre8365/ 
You can join this anytime you wish, it isn't something you had to have gotten in on in the beginning, that's a convoluted way to say JOIN NOW, no matter what the date :)

Christmas cards 2014

Here they are, my Christmas cards for 2014, I chose to do our local birds, I chose not to write anything on the face of the card so that the card could be framed if the recipient wishes. I might do a few more, if I do, I'll post those as well.

I used Derwent Inktense Blocks and Derwent Inktense Pencils to draw and paint these images, I am drawing/painting on heavy card stock. Enjoy!

Continuing the Christmas Cards-with a video

I have most of the Christmas cards done, just a few more to go. Today I tried something new, I have been wanting to record myself painting but didn't have a tripod or other setup to do so, I mentioned to PB that I wanted to do this and made a suggestion about one method, mounting the camera to the board I'm painting upon.

PB stopped working on his project and immediately began working on mine, in less than an hour, I had the first prototype, I created this first video using that. It worked pretty well, though the video was upside down, I used Microsoft Movie Maker to fix that, I also sped up the video to 2X, otherwise it would just be way too long.

Another fun feature of MMM is the ability to do a voiceover, add text, intros and such, it's fun and easy to use.

This video is one of the Christmas cards I'm making, this bird is a Dark Eyed Junco, also known as a Gray Headed Junco. This is one of our local birds.

I am using Derwent Inktense Blocks and Derwent Inktense Pencils to draw and paint this image, I am drawing/painting on heavy card stock. Sorry for the strange sound about 3:10, my dog barked in the original video and I wasn't able to edit it out before I uploaded the video.... since the video is sped up, the bark sounds strange.

Starting my Christmas cards 2014

I've been working on Christmas cards, I have just under half of them done, may do even more than I did last year, not sure yet.... anyhoo, this year I decided on a theme, our local birds, my criteria is they need to be colorful and easy for me to do, I would love to do crazy quail or a roadrunner, but those birds have a speckled pattern, mostly with white speckles, something I don't feel comfortable tackling now.

So far the birds I have painted are tufted titmouse, scarlet tanager, acorn woodpecker, Scott's oriole, and white breasted nuthatch.

I am using the Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks, I lightly sketch out the bird in pencil, then painted in the color. The paper is just plain old white 8.5x11 cardstock. I'll add the name of the bird and my signature on the front of the card, I'll write the sentiment on the inside and give them out, this way if the receiver wishes to, they can frame it.

I am having a really good time doing it. Here are the ones I have so far:

acorn woodpecker

scarlet tanager

scarlet tanager

white breasted nuthatch

tufted titmouse

scarlet tanager

Scott's oriole

Scott's oriole

white breasted nuthatch