Sunday 18 May 2014

Watercolour for Card Makers - Day 10

Hello!

Those of you on the Watercolour for Card Makers online class would have seen Jennifer Rzasa's amazing hand drawn bird. I'm not quite ready to try painting a bird in flight, although maybe next time I'll give it a go! Jennifer has long inspired me with her art, and finally I am experimenting a little more to see what I can do.

Yesterday I sat down to draw and paint my second ever bird. My first bird was this one. I think I've improved a little between first try and second try. Imagine what would happen if I sat down to practice more! ;-) I never knew what a Bluebird looked like. I found photos of them when I was trying to find the name of another bird I wanted to draw, and decided I would try a bluebird first. To me they look like little blue robin redbreasts. Are bluebirds robins?
I painted this bird in Inktense pencils. I mixed colours from the pencils with my paintbrushes onto my paint tray when I didn't have the right colour. When I was sketching it to start with I was really struggling with the basic shape. The wings are different to what my brain wanted to draw. So I turned my photos upside down and just worked with the shapes I could see. It worked much better! I painted this over a day, letting parts dry that I didn't want to mush into other sections.

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

8 comments:

Kathryn A said...

Awesome bluebird!! Marvellous painting, too. And thanks for the reminder about turning your work upside down--I had forgotten that trick!

obee said...

Great job on the bluebird! Hasn't this class been fun? Hope you will do more painting...

Marybeth said...

Look at you ,such an artist! This is beautiful Michelle ! Looks like a missed a great class.

Kim Heggins said...

Wow...you are an artist, just beautiful.

Suzanne Russell said...

Both birds look good to me! I've been so inspired by this class and have learned a lot technique wise. You are becoming quite the artist Michelle! I love watching your progress. BTW, I pinned your beautiful peonies from yesterday's post. Great job!

Sherrie M. said...

Wow Michelle! Stunning, absolutely stunning. And I hate birds! :)

Jaydee said...

Michelle, I am so impressed a) that you were brave enough to try and b) how wonderfully it turned out. I think you rocked it. A Bluebird was a great bird to start with because they are so colorful and you really captured that vibrancy so well. Although the Bluebird isn't a robin, he is in the same family order:-) I saw one flash past me this morning and it was wonderful to come and see him on your blog :-)
Hugs
Jaydee

Tracey McNeely said...

Gorgeous Michelle, you are an artist!