Happy Hearts Valentine Themed Sketchbook

Ok, so I am a wee bit late posting these. This hand bound, hand painted, 20 page sketchbook was a little labor intensive and most of the postcards my mom received from this sketchbook were critters without page embellishments. I just finished all of the embellishments today.

Some of these may get bumped out by St Patrick’s Day but love is a daily activity anyway, right?

One of these days I need to get a new updated printer because the color of these postcards is quite intense in person and my printer does a “WTF is this?!” when I printed them out. I had to use color pencils after I printed them. I had used some metallic paint which scanned well but the printer didn’t do it justice. Yeah, I could have done these digitally, but there are some things that are best left to chance.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of these creatures came from a sketch in my morning pages which started out as a random shape, that I move around until I find something to work with in that shape, and pull a creature out of it.

I prepainted the pages before assembling the sketchbook. The colors are very bright and intense.

The media used was whatever I had within reach of my desk. Nothing has been tweaked digitally, I will be posting the raw sketchbook pages

Happy is a loyal friend who loves to run, chase squirrels and eat bacon. One day Happy chased a big raccoon out of his yard.

This happy fellow was actually just completed yesterday, #19, but because he’s the cover, he is first for the series. I will also be writing a short description of each….

Happy is a loyal friend who loves to run, chase squirrels and eat bacon. One day Happy chased a big raccoon out of his yard.

Happy Valentine’s Day

I have been working on a few Valentine’s Day projects. One of those projects was felt patterns I found by Alison Kaplan.

I used to love to cross stitch and I had made so many things with cross stitch when I was in my 20’s. I still hang my hand stitched ornaments on my Christmas tree but for some reason, a needle and thread were something I have tried to avoid for many, many years. I have tons of cross stitch books with patterns and I have three DMC floss containers that were stored away. I don’t remember why I put a project away and never went back to it.

Then I found instructions for making a felt mouse and fox. I was surprised that I had everything I needed to do these projects except for the felt. I definitely had the DMC floss! To make these projects my own, I made them Valentine themed.

I cut out the felt and started sewing. Before I knew it, these two guys were complete. I even tried some embroidery going as far as using You Tube to research stitches. I really surprised myself with this project.

But could I make my own pattern? Why not? So I made a kitty pattern and then made my mom a kitty and mailed it to her as a Valentine’s gift. (Update on mom, she’s had her Covid vaccinations.)

Then I thought, ooooooh, what if I made a kitty with different colored ears and a heart shaped patch around an eye? I finished this one and gave it to my daughter as a Valentine’s present and even made pockets on the dress to tuck things into, like chocolate.

I have many more ideas for these little guys that are also influencing my 2d work. I really enjoyed making my own patterns and have ideas for more creatures, including dogs. I found that doing these were very relaxing and Mindful.

Accidental people

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.

Little dog & Owls

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.

Egrets

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.

Hyacinth

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

Parsley

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…..