Art, Sunny Dogs, More Art

 The Zoom sketch practice sessions this past week were not really to my tastes, but I gave them a good try anyway.  The first was a truly weird tree snag in Monument Valley:

Yes, that's really what it looked like.  My sister said it looked like the tree was bowing down to the ancient stones, while I said it looked like an alien tree monster on the attack.  Perhaps this says something about how our minds work.  Hm.

The second photo we drew from was a vase in a stone window, which I found Much Too Yellowish overall.  Yellow is horrid because when I try to take a good photo of my art to share online, any yellows invariably come out looking overly vivid, and I have to work at getting things to look right.  Most vexing!

And now, here is our Dachshund Interlude for today:

While my friends in the Midwest were dealing with temps in the negative numbers (and plenty of snow) and while my friends in the Puget Sound were experiencing endless gray, rainy days, I was lounging in the backyard with the Hounds, feeling too warm at times.

However, this is all slated to change this coming week, with a forecast of HIGHS in the 20s for quite a few days in a row.  Brrrrrr. 

I will have tasks to occupy myself with indoors, though.  Our Zoom practice leader, Tina, decided that she was going to draw a bird a day during February.  She suggested the rest of us try it too (separate from our regular art sessions).  And of course, we all gamely said, "Sure, why not?"

Well, I will tell you why not:  It's EVERY.  SINGLE.  DAY. 

Now, I like birds.  I've drawn an awful lot of them over the years.  Still, this is a commitment, and after the fourth or fifth bird in a row, I was already tired of them.  Feathers are hard.  But I am doing it, and we are all sharing are progress in order to encourage each other.  Yay.

Anyway, for the next few weeks, there will be lots of bird art here.  At least it's a short month.

My February 1 bird was a toucan, from a photo off the Web.  I drew it digitally on the iPad:

For February 2, I chose to work from my own photo of this Bohemian Waxwing, drawn the old-fashioned way with pen and watercolor:

February third's bird was also from my own photo of a Black Oystercatcher, which I drew using pencil, watercolor, and colored pencils:

By February 4, I was tired of looking for bird photos to work from, and decided to deconstruct the birds instead by drawing the various types of feathers:

On February 5, I had a very busy day and wound up with little time for drawing, so I did a quick and rather rough pen and watercolor sketch (also from my own photo) of this Osprey bringing a stick to its nest platform:

February 6 was a banner day for bird drawing.  I opted for an extinct bird, and found a lovely pic of an old watercolor rendering of this delightful Dodo.  This was the first time in this daily exercise where I had a grand time, as I really liked the rendering style.  I was so happy with this result that I framed it!

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday, or as nerdy birders refer to it, Superb Owl Sunday, when they like to amuse themselves by posting photos of owls everywhere while snickering.  Okay.  Whatever.  It seemed like a good day to draw this lovely Barn Owl:

So, I made it through the first week -- whew!  Only 21 more bird drawings to go....

....ARGH.

Wish me luck!