#naturedoodlewash

An Abstract Claybord Experiment

| Laura (Createarteveryday)

My first experiment with Claybord……and I’m undecided at this point about this one.   This is a 5×7″ acrylic.   Vicki Hutchins reviewed it here, and I love everything Vicki does, so of course, I bought some too!

060916

I’d love to know what you think about Claybord.   I love Aquabord and Gessobord, all created by Ampersand.    (Note:   I may receive a portion of your purchase from these links to help support my site.)   Not sure how I feel about this one, but I’d love to get your thoughts.    It is a very slick surface.    So I guess I expected a different result?    I don’t know.   Maybe I was having an off day with the brushes.

I’d also love to know what, if anything, you see in this painting.    It’s a pretty fun kind of mind trip for me, hearing everything I didn’t paint, lol.    For this one, I had something in my mind and I was painting abstractly, randomly (or so I thought).   Then I turned the painting to the side when I was ready to put my brush down, and there it was…..what was on my mind while painting.   Strange, huh?   *cue the Twilight Zone theme*

Happy Almost Friday, good people!    Peace and paint puddles to all.

Draw a Bird Day (June Remix) and 100 Face Challenge #62!

| Laura (Createarteveryday)

It’s time to recognize our friend Michael Emberson at A-Wing and A-Way once again for informing the WP community about the annual Draw A Bird Day holiday on April 8. Some of us love birds so much that we decided to celebrate it monthly on the eighth of each month!     If you’d like your artwork to be included in my roundup this month, please post a link to your bird art in my comments section here.   Thanks so much for joining in!

060816

I also want to thank Kathy at Backyard Bird Nerd for this incredible closeup of a blue jay that allowed me to get some great detail into my pen sketch last night.    Kathy, you and your work shine so brightly here at WordPress!    I sketched this one once or twice in pencil until I was happy with the shapes, and then for this ink work, I find it usually works better if I go right to ink.   If I try to underdraw in pencil first, it seems to kill my mojo.    Sketching for a few months without an eraser has really helped train me for pen work.    Once I was finished, I used a blue Neocolor crayon to draw lightly here and there in the body of the bird, then go back with a wet brush to liquefy the color and spread it around.    Neocolors can give so many different effects, and are highly portable.  Watercolor would have worked too, but I wanted a “barely there” wash, and my palette wasn’t close by at the time, hehe.    (As a Dick Blick affiliate, I may receive a small percentage of your purchase from this link to help support my site.)

I would also like to join in Charlie’s nature walk this month over at Doodlewash!   Charlie has a different theme each month, and in June he is celebrating nature, which is one of my favorite things indeed, and what inspired me to begin my art journey nearly two years ago now.    If you’d like to join Charlie this month, post your nature artwork, and attach the tag #naturedoodlewash.  He’ll do a roundup at the end of the month showcasing the nature-themed work, so stay tuned for that!

Can you smell the weekend?   I sure can!    Cool breezes are forecast for today and I’m looking forward to it!   Peace and peeps to all.