Sketchbook Revival 2025: Birds

 I've been trying my hand at birds again! I followed along with the teacher, Julia Bausenhardt, in the video "How to Draw a Bird in Five Easy Steps". It's in watercolor, and I'm not familiar with this bird, but it's a Bluetit, according to the teacher. 

I kind of did it backwards, but I painted along with her and took notes first, then went back and added the diagram the next day. I tend to get watercolor thicker and brighter than most people. Possibly because my eyes are giving me trouble. Anyway, it was fun to learn and do!

The next one is a seagull from an original photo that I took on our road trip out west in 2019. We were on our way back home and spent the night in Missouri. There was a flock of seagulls in the parking lot of the motel we stayed in, and I captured some of them on film.

I enjoyed working out the drawing and painting it in ink and watercolor!

This one was really a challenge! I saw a photo of a pink bird amongst pink flowers online, and it was so pretty that I decided to try painting it. Not exactly like the photo, because I can't copy anything exactly, even if I wanted to, but it was certainly inspired by the photo. I'm not sure what kind of bird it is. Maybe a parakeet or a parrotlet? The background was as much of a challenge as the bird was, and I got the pinks too purple from the start, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't get rid of it, so I just finally went with it. The pinks were actually more of an orange-pink, which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

It's not perfect, but I'm glad I tackled it. It taught me a lot! Ink and watercolor-The classes in Sketchbook Revival have helped me gain so much, not just in knowledge, but in confidence too. I'm so glad I signed up and have stayed with the classes!

Below is my actual workspace, and, believe it, or not, I do actually work there sometimes. It is our dining room table, which I started organizing my art supplies on, but in the midst of sorting I got the itch to work on a journal or something, so I laid my drawing board on top of the sorted piles to work on. Since then, it has also become very cluttered with works in progress and assorted collage materials, leaving very little work space. On top of that, it is tilted, so that what I'm working on tends to try to slide off. It's a struggle to keep what I'm working on on there. No wonder I do all of my drawing/painting while sitting in my recliner with my necessary stuff on a stool beside me! Seems like I can't find the time for cleaning/organizing anymore. Every time I blink another week is gone!

I am still trying to sketch/paint some every day, and by the time we do our exercises, the day is gone, even when we get up earlier. But I have to do something about this mess!

Anyway, that's it for this post! Thanks for visiting! Take care of you!