Illustration Friday: Ripple

pen and watercolor, 2.5"x3.5"

(SOLD)

A black-bellied whistling ducking, rippling through the water, rushes toward its mother and toward safety. Unfortunately, this little one is just one of the countless animals affected by the Deep Water Horizon Gulf oil spill and its fate will be sealed if it comes into contact with the oil. What can we do to help?

This art card will be donated to Kelly Light's Ripple blog and sold for $10 to benefit The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. If you'd like the card for a $10 donation, please look for it on Kelly's blog. Kelly, driven to help with the cleanup effort and saving our wildlife, started selling her sketch cards for $10 each and donated the proceeds to these two organizations. Quickly, other artists joined her efforts shows us that we can each play a part in the cleanup. As of today, Kelly has raised over $1,350! You go girl! Please help with the effort and consider donating for a card on Kelly's blog. Thanks!

Roostering

watercolor

(SOLD)

My pet chicken has a father! I met this rather handsome rooster (Lily's father) at the Farmer's Market where "Jus' Tom", the local silkie chicken guy was carrying him around town. He was looking rather regal so I got a couple shots of him before he padded away.

Watercolor on Arches, cold press, 140 lb.

Life

Hi all! Just want to let you all know that I am actually back to drawing. I hope you don't give up on me! Will be posting some new stuff soon ...

I just had to show you some pics of my sweet chickies. They are 1 month old right now and if you have had chickens, you realize how sweet I am on these fuzzy butts. :) They've been keeping me busy. If you're interested in seeing the progression from egg to now, check out my Joan Goes Green blog. See you again soon! *hugs*

For Danny and Jack...

It is with a sad heart that I report that Danny Gregory's wife, Patti, passed away on Thursday. Danny started Everyday Matters, a drawing group that has inspired thousands to pick up their pencils and draw, including me and I owe him so much! My heart aches over what he and his son, Jack must be going through now and my eyes have been filled with tears since I heard the news. My heart goes out to both of them and their families. I pray their hearts and soul will find comfort and peace through this very difficult time. Praying for you ...

Road find

Is anyone like me? Do you pick up interesting and sometimes dead things to take a closer look later? When I saw this while walking around the neighborhood, the biologist in me instantly thought, "Oh goodie!" I also picked up a fluorescent blue fly and a penny! I'm such a nerd and I can't help it!

EDM Challenge #234 - Something that belongs to someone else

Aren't kids' toys the best? These little buggers are my friend's son's ... and of course Aunty Jo had fun playing with them too! The little giraffe is a finger puppet and the frog ... apparently, is a chew toy (he's teething). I added a little bit of watercolor to the pen sketch in my moleskine; it accepts color, if applied carefully.

EDM Challenge #250 - Something I got for free

A few tomato seedlings came up in my worm bin after I had thrown some tomatoes out. I transplanted the little seedlings and months later, I have huge plants dripping with plump, luscious tomatoes, fertilized with my vermicompost, of course. One of the plants produced yellow tomatoes! I love when I get free stuff like this! (Transparent watercolor on Arches, cold press, 140lb.)

EDM #253 - Draw your socks

Felt like a quick sketch tonight, nothing planned, nothing serious. Just an ordinary pair of socks on the floor ...

If you feel the urge to draw but have a creative block, Everyday Matters group is a great way to overcome your hurdle. Everyone meets at the Everyday Matters Yahoo group and California artist Karen Winters provides the EDM list on her blog site. A new subject is posted each week. Start at number 1 or start at 256 or anywhere between, at your own pace, in your own medium. Pretty much anything goes. When you're done, you may post your work on the Flicker EDM group site after you've joined. It's easy and fun! All levels welcome! Come draw with us! :D (PS: I'd like to acknowledge Danny Gregory who started the group)

Daisy girl

Chickens are funny-lookin' creatures, aren't they? Daisy is a "blue" (but really black) Japanese silkie chicken ... all fluff and tons of personality. She is sitting very quietly on a little non-fertile egg day after day and I'd hate to tell her that it is to no avail. She looks serious, doesn't she? She'd be a good momma, that one.

Kamoamoa

Transparent watercolor on cold press Arches, 140lb, 26x36cm (Sincerest apologies for the blurry photo). :)

I've been obsessed by rocks lately, huh? The layers of red cinder between layers of gray pahoehoe rock was obvious in the sea cliffs of Kamoamoa, down by the ocean in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Pretty fascinating for a naturalist-type. Plus, the sound of waves crashing on the rocks is still in my ears and salty sea breezes still in my nose. It's a lovely spot.

Pahoehoe rock sketch

Spent the day at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and found beautiful forms of pahoehoe rock doing their "dance" at the coast. Thought I'd share this quick sketch I did of the rocks and some pretty beach naupaka plants (Scaevola sericea) (from my reference pics).

More drawings to come, I promise! :)

Ciuccio's Challenge

I love a good challenge. I came across a nature scene challenge that Ciuccio51 had provided with the Flickr group, Watercolourist, Painting with Light. So, being a good Aries that I am, took up the challenge despite it being rather late in coming. It was a bit challenging to create areas of focus and I'm not sure if I achieved that but it was fun to do nonetheless. I just might try to do another one of the same scene, which you should know, is totally out of character. Check out the link for other interpretations of the nature scene. To get you started, here are a few that I love. One is done by Sigrid Frensen, or Sigster as I like to call her, from Noordhorn, Netherlands. Another by none other than ciuccio51 from Florence, Italy. And finally one by linfrye of the View from the Oak blog. Please check out their Flickr sites. All are totally gorgeous and worth a visit. :)

Why?

"Please explain why your silence makes more noise than thunder." - Anon.

Figured this image speaks for itself. Don't you just wonder what she's thinking? Transparent watercolor on Arches, cold press.

Orchids preparing for the fall

I am so thrilled about my orchid plant because it has a new sprig! The flowers are whitish yellow-green, if you can imagine that. :) I did a bit of hatcharoo using the classic "Belleville-style" (now turned "Van Stone-style") in my moleskine and I think it gave the flowers a lot of depth.

Flow front

We made a special trip down to the lava flow front this weekend and caught a glimpse of the lava entering the ocean about a half a mile away. Huge billows of steam blew bits of rock up to form a small black sand beach near the entry way. Pretty cool. Smells of the trip: salty ocean breeze, newly formed pahoehoe rocks heating in the sun, ripe guava picked off a nearby tree, and a tall glass of Heiferweisen at Luquin's in Pahoa. I did this very quick watercolor to capture the moment.

Still life goes on

Ever get the craving for a splash of color and the feel of paint brushes in your hand? I got the craving last night and started this painting of some fruit I pulled from my fruit basket. I probably overworked the colors ... but I had fun putting glaze over glaze over glaze. The entire time I could smell the ripe fruit and already took a bite of the one on the left and alas, it is no more. Thanks for stopping by!

Textures study

Using a pen definitely has its challenges, including capturing textures and I surely needed some practice so this is it. I had such a fun time with it that I may start another texture study tonight! (Click on the image to see it larger)

I am hopeful

"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today." - President Barack Obama

I was watching an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show on YouTube last night and she was talking with Jennifer Aniston, her guest that day, and Jennifer Aniston said something that struck me as being a very different mindset from the past 8 years. She mentioned that with our new leader, there is shift in what we want and said, "Maybe we want good news! it's sort of like `Oh! the country had a really bad boyfriend for awhile' and then all of a sudden, its like, `Oh! She finally met a nice one!'" Ellen agreed and challenged the news to cut back on the bad news and focus on the positive wonderful things that happen! I am ALL for that!

I was so inspired by that that I picked up my color pencils and drew this freehand ... I just let the pencil do its thing starting with the highlights. Ok, it may not look like President Obama so much but my heart was in the right place. :)

Thanks Karen!

I'd like to thank Karen Blados for this beautiful Kreativ Blogger Award! :) I am grateful. Please stop by Karen's blog and website. I guarantee you will be impressed by HER creativity! I will be passing along this award to 7 creative bloggers soon but it's getting late so it will have to wait until tomorrow! :) Stop by again, ok?

After the rain ...

Thanks for stopping by folks! I finally have a post after what seems like FOREVER! :)