Quirky Birds

Recently I have painted a few quirky birds. The inspiration came from Tam's "Life Book 2013", and I had so much fun creating these funny little birds. Here are my four birds for Life Book, with more to come:

But I didn't stop with the Life Book assignment. I painted some more quirky birds and owls on canvas or wood.

6 x 6 canvas

6 x 6 wood panel

Before I started painting the birds I had sketched a whole bunch of them on small notepaper. When Kaefer saw them she liked a certain one best. I transformed that one in a painting and gave it to her for her birthday - she turned 15 yesterday.

Kaefer's Quirky Bird, 5 x 7 canvas

These birds are so much fun to paint. I love that they're not realistic; instead, my imagination can run wild. How much fun is that!!! I love it!

I'm linking this with Paint Party Friday where you can find the amazing work of so many talented artists.

Oh, in case you've wondered - my painting from last week finally got a name. I received quite some interesting and beautiful ideas on Facebook, and finally decided for Jennifer's suggestion of "Inner Beauty".

Life Book 2013

I've just realized that I haven't posted any more of my Life Book 2013 class except for the "warm-up" Fairy Art Mother. Of course I am already hopelessly behind since I am also working on other online classes, but it's okay. I have enough time to catch up, and I don't think that I am doing every week's "assignment". Some don't speak to me as much as others, and I'd rather have fun with the ones I feel tempted to do. I also don't want to show all of them since some are very personal and for my eyes only. But - today there are two assignments I'd like to share with you.

The first is the black and white image on top, "Scales of Light". I worked with white pastels on black cardstock, a first for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I used Schmincke pastels which are incredibly soft and just wonderful to work with.

One week the topic was "Celebration and courage" - I painted myself with the "shadow" of a mountain lion behind me. Unfortunately I couldn't create this in the way it was supposed to be - the woman should have been covered with masking fluid while we would spray over her, then remove the masking fluid and paint the clothes and hair etc. in. Well, when I opened my small bottle of masking fluid it had all dried up (the same thing happened to Tam in the video!), so I drew the woman on cardstock, cut her out and attached her.

This week's lesson as well as from two weeks ago are really tempting and I hope to do them real soon. Hopefully, I can post them here.

The Fairy Art Mother

Since I didn't paint for quite a while, I gave myself a kick in the butt and signed up for Life Book 2013 by the amazing Tamara Laporte. Before that I did a "little" class taught by her about a Christmas painting, and I really like her style of painting AND her style of teaching. She's organized, funny and a great teacher - plus an exceptional artist. Life Book 2013 lasts for the entire year, and so far I have only done the "warm-up exercise" which was so much fun. Meet the "Fairy Art Mother":

For this painting I mainly used the Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons which have become a favorite of mine. When shortly before Christmas one of our two art supply stores sent me a 40% off coupon I didn't hesitate to get a pack of 30 of these wonderful water soluble crayons. On cold press watercolor paper they turn into brilliant colors when activated with water. So the Swiss not only make good chocolate and cheese but also fabulous art supplies.

I'm usually not someone who paints a lot of whimsical, but I think I could get more and more into it. This painting of course is very simple and I did it in one day which is quite extraordinary for me because usually I take forever. However, I enjoyed painting this one so very much that I couldn't quit it in between.

Finally, I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday again. Since I didn't paint for such a long time, I haven't participated in the party, and I'm glad to be there again. I hope I keep up! I also link up with Sneak Peek Friday at JRU studio which is another favorite site of mine. I encourage you to go and visit there and perhaps even link to their sites as well.

A lovely weekend to all of you - tomorrow is Saturday which means I will unplug again. Enjoy, everybody!