Day 28 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Playing with pattern this afternoon, I started out with an envelope coated with black gesso and a white colored pencil.

Maybe you participated in such an activity back in kindergarten?

I have to admit, it's overly simple and a whole lot of fun, next up are my metallic crayons!

I moved the tape, twice actually.  I love how the circles intersect and is a process worthy of exploration.

Day 27 The 60 Day Bird Journal Project

Experimenting with pointillism this evening.

I think I may like this more as a layered affect over other patterns!

Day 26 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Days 23-26 Working with Camouflage Patterns

Two colors of alcohol ink the last color sprayed through my Blackbirds in Tree Stencil. 

A close up.

And now some green alcohol ink on the left page.

And now for a layer of green paint, red paint, and yellow paint to create a different mood.

My handmade paper stencil, I used it and a gelli pen to create circles across the top third of my page.

I also used my hexagon and chevron stencils (my design created them using my Silhouette Cameo) with another shade of red metallic gelli pen.

Day 21 The 60 Day Bird Journal Project

A Life of Pattern

My daily pattern resembles pears for some reason.

There is pattern everywhere in nature, if we search for it long enough we will find that which we desire.

Downy Woodpecker and American Robin repeat patterns.

Day 19 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

If your desire is to become better at something then you need to practice, and you need to make a lot of mistakes.  Mistakes are a part of the growth process.
  

My bird  model.

Day 18 and Still No Birds!

Still no birds so here is one of my stock photos from 2011.  Yesterday started out sunny with a biting wind that ended heavily overcast and a bitter wind.  I did enjoy the clouds they appeared to be back lit with a dark indigo blue coloring.

Hopefully tomorrow there will be some birds to observe.

Day 16 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Goose Flight patterns over a field north of town, (Days 13-15) looking at them on paper reminds me of mountain peaks.

Geese headed to Little Wall Lake north of Gilbert, Iowa.  The dark area at the bottom represents the field they were lifting off from.

I'm behind here in my posts.  I'm not in sending out the challenge newsletter, but, somehow or another I got swept up in a book I was reading and poof two days were gone!

Day 12 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

This was my goals sheet for 2014, and in retrospect it was a great idea, in reality it lacked one crucial element, two actually.  One: a schedule.  Two: accountability.

Day 12 Challenge:  What are your dreams for 2015, what goals, and actionable plan do you need to implement to accomplish your dreams?

I accomplished some of my goals for 2014 and these are not finite goals but year in goals, meaning I need to be constantly making new art, new collections, etc., and with the continual updates and changes within Adobe I've resolved to learning it as well as  I can and to continue to try and keep up with the tech as it changes!

One of the best decisions I could have made last year was to close The Natural Surfaces Academy, it was simply costing me too much time and money to keep open for zero return.

So this years biggest goals are income goals this will be my make it or break it year, consistency i.e., make and keep an actual schedule, and accountability I God just plopped into my lap an accountability partner and I wasn't even looking for one and I'll know more in a week about that situation.

So what does this have to do with birds?  Everything and nothing!  Without the accountability, and consistency there won't be any wondrous birds coming from my studio or any art for that matter!

Day 11 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Day 11 Challenge

Make a list of activities, people, birds, and/or animals that inspire you.

Georgia O'Keeffe - She overcame in an era when it was common to put women in so-called their place; she had pluck and in spades!

P. Buckley Moss - She never lost her identity or her vision and unknown to many people has two completely different bodies of work that are highly collectible!

Crows - for their intelligence, humor, tenacity, and loyalty.

Day 9 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Day 9 "D" is for Downy Woodpecker

It's not a secret I love birds and I love pattern so I reduced one of favorite birds down to bits of vivid color and pattern.

Day 8 the 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Day 8 "R" is for Robin!

I started this spread in my journal last night, capturing the best qualities of what I love about Robins, I plan to finish the spread today after I finish this mornings writing.

Acrylic paint on Bristol board using my hand personal stencil designs.

Days 6 & 7 of the 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Playing catch up today, for some odd reason I thought I posted yesterday!

Day 7 "I" is for indigo bunting. I love the iridescence of the indigo buntings feathers and I love mother of pearl so these mother of pearl beads are the perfect fit for my artifacts box.

Day 6 "B" is for Bluejay.  Bluejay colored threads for creating a stitched rendition of a jay.

Day 5 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Day 5 and for today I asked members to collect images of birds whose name makes up the word bird.  We will be working with these birds for the next four days and then again towards the end of this challenge.

I sketched up some birds from my photo archives on my computer, printing them seemed a bit spendy with the cost of printer ink being what it is, so here it is in all of it's glory!  As you can see not only did I mess up the Downy Woodpecker's drawing BUT also miss spelled it's name.

Perfection is not the end goal in this challenge, the willingness to take risks and see where this leads us is, however, part of the end goal; growth is the other part of the end goal for this challenge.

Day 4 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

Watercolor on sketchbook paper.

Somewhere deep in the thicket a bird is hiding,
His song betraying his presence,
Warning others of strangers in the land.

Day 3 The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge

No photos of birds today, just some rough drawings of my observations, which were few and far between!  That said, but, you knew there had to be a but in there right? But... I did spy on my way into my local Aldi's this afternoon a Sharp Shinned Hawk coasting on the air currents just able the green belt area that is behind the store. 


On my way out I spied an American Bald Eagle swooping down towards the trees, in the same area I saw the Sharp Shinned Hawk.  So maybe those raptors were lucky enough to have a meal today?

The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge!!!

Welcome to the 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge!  Enrollment has officially closed but you can follow along here as I will be adding new posts here each day!