This is an assignment from a Carla Sonheim class. This was my first one of this project and I have some postcards cut to do more when I am sitting by the TV. I am actually trying to get OUT of the studio more, believe it or not. This assignment is all random and you really don’t plan it, you just go with it and use what ever you have on hand.
I started to play with drawing bulldogs but this little guy happened instead. The whole drawing was “accidental.” Sometimes the pencil has a mind of its own.
Our screech owls are back and the palm tree they used last January fell over during the summer. It was dead for a while but we didn’t remove it because the owls were using it.
John made the owls an nesting box and put it in a safer tree for them. Now we wait to see if they use it. We called the wildlife folks to ask where the best spot was and this is what they suggested. Keeping fingers crossed. I can hear them outside right now.
PS…it is “winter” in Florida right now and this tree loses it leaves every year. They don’t change color, they just fall off.
Plenty of these here in the neighborhood all the time….my faves are the cattle egrets. They chase lawn mowers. You can walk out your front door and find them on your car. And if your driving through interior Florida, the cattle egrets are cattle back riding on the many cows that are grazing on the cattle ranches……
Cool stuff!
Also, my daughter got us a Roomba for Christmas. Today is its birthday because we finally got all the Christmas decorations put away and we pulled it out to get acquainted with it. Chloe and Mack didn’t know what to make of it but they didn’t see to think of it as a threat even though they don’t like regular vacuums.
It went under the chaise as Mack was sleeping and he almost looked violated.😂 He didn’t know where it went but he could hear it.
It works great.
I did this last year for a MATS assignment. The assignment was how eating vegan can help the planet. (It can also help the waist line too.) Instead of reinventing the wheel, here is my Eucalyptus submission for the Daily Challenge.
Sketch done from life. Homemade sketchbook using Stonehenge paper and Tombows.
This was drawn from life and is in that same 5×5 homemade toned paper sketchbook that I have used the past few days. I picked up this hyacinth at the local market. With all the beautiful flowers and plants that grow in my part of Florida, these do not and hyacinths have always been a favorite of mine. So for a short time, I will have this pretty pink (eventually) hyacinth growing in the house…
I have been limiting my sketches in this book to 25 min. These are raw and are untouched by any digital process but could be used at a later time for something.
Enjoy this taste of Spring
Here’s another sketch of an item I usually don’t consider high on my list of subject matter to draw or paint. Sketched with an opaque watercolor and ink on toned Stonehenge paper in my homemade sketchbook. The sketch hasn’t been retouched digitally…..yet.
Parsley.
Parsley is one of the herbs that I have growing in pots on my lanai. We tried planting it in a garden in the yard, but it seems that we have super slugs down here that can obliterate a plant over night. HA! They can’t get in the screen house though, and now that the screech owls are back for another nesting season, the slugs are high on the gourmet snack list. Poetic justice. Good birdies!
How do I know that the screech owls are back? The snitches. The feathered blue tattle tales with the big mouths. Aka Blue Jays. Nothing is safe from the preying eyes of these feathered informants. One of the screech owls was sleeping in one of our palms and the Blue Vigilantes raised quite a ruckus which of course alerted the Red Squad, aka Cardinals, along with a few mockingbirds. They let up a bit when I went out there to walk the perimeter of the yard, found the poor abused owl and when I went back in the house, they flew away and let him sleep. I could hear his mate trilling gently from another tree. I guess the fact that I didn’t react sent the birds off to harass the other raptors in the neighborhood (and we have plenty.)
A little while later, another hit squad showed up, the Palm Warblers, aka ELVES WITH ATTITUDE. I could hear them while I was cooking, And they were doing everything BUT warbling. They were just about taunting him, hopping from branch to branch almost like they were playing “chicken”. Hootie had moved and was hiding his face in a different palm, trying to catch some Zzzz’s. If he had a pillow it would have been pulled over his head. I thought the Tiny Hit Squad had some nerve because they would have been an entree for the owls. I promised Hootie that we would build him an owl box this week to replace their palm that fell down from rot.
I noticed that the lizard population seems to be slightly dented. I haven’t seen as many hanging out on the screens but now that the owls are back, I realized the herd is being culled. It’s nice to hear the owls at night. They trill, then look at you like, “I didn’t do it and if I did I wouldn’t admit it.” They hang out in our yard and poach whatever moves. They like the frogs, too. Last year a slug did get in the screen house on one evening, and I tossed it in the air towards the nest. It got snapped outta the air before it hit the ground! That’ll learn the slugs! I was impressed.
This whole post about owls from a sprig of parsley…..
I don’t think I ever actually dedicated a sketch page to a garlic bulb. Ever. I popped open my fridge and the bulb that was in there was a wild thing. It’s fresh but the ones I have been finding at the store are more loose-y goose-y like the one in the fridge with huge cloves of garlic. Yum.
So I sat at my desk and quickly sketched one from memory. Then I pulled out some paint and painted my garlic. Then I just started pulling out random materials for the hell of it and here we are; a mixed media garlic bulb.
Damn that was fun!
PS. This is in a homemade square sketchbook using mixed colors of toned Stonehenge paper.
