Ross's Gull first attempt

Well I did get back to drawing last night after all our dreary, humid air moved out. But after I got going, I realized that this little creature has way to many feathers to draw this small. What to do??? Start all over again tonight??? I think I'm going to have to. Second times a charm, as they say! Back to the drawing board...tonight!

Seagull Finished!

Haven't been doing too much drawing lately, been busy with other things, but I finished him up last night. I started to post him in a vertical format and then decided it really should be horizontal! Hope you like him! His mouth was a very tricky detail but I love the way it came out!

Seagull Close-up

Sea Gull Stage 2 or F_ck BP!!!!!

This sea gull had the hardest mouth to draw and I'm still not finished with it. It needs to be darker. I just ordered some new really dark red reds from Prismacolor and will have to go over the inside of the mouth again. I hope he looks like he is saying "F_ck BP!"

The feathers need more layers of color and I need to look at some more reference for the tail feathers. Actually I think they are the tips of his wings (they need to be black) as I think the tail feathers are white. Research! The 2 photos I was using for reference were blocked by other seagulls!

Selling well!

Well another print of my gannets got bought by someone in Australia! I'll have to print that one up today and get to the post office again. My listing is number 295 if you want to have a look.

I hope the charities are making lots of money off of this donated art! Please consider donating some yourself! You upload it to upload it to http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/, she posts it on http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/. People make a donation to either of these two charities, she emails you their address, and you send out your sketch. Can be anything on the topic.

"The $10.00 is a donation to help the animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. Every penny is donated. The two Non-Profits that are benefitting are The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center."

But what are they going to do with all the animals they are saving? They can't just release them back into the wild or they will get soaked in the oil again. Build a humongous new sea world for turtles and birds? And keep them there how long, before it's safe to release them back into the wild? How long will it take until the fish are safe for the birds and turtles to eat? How long until there are some fish and microbes, and right down the food chain, to sustain life in the Gulf? So many questions I would like to ask the experts. So sad at this devastation.

Seagull Bird stage one

Here's the beginning of a seagull. Looks like he's screaming at BP!!!!!!

Gannets Birds closeup

Gannets Birds

I was reading Curious Crows blog about the ripplesketches blog to help with cleaning up the poor animals in the Gulf, and decided to draw some Gannets, as they were some of the first birds to be covered in that awful oil. So here are these beautiful birds, startlingly white and pure before their destruction. I'm going to upload it to http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/ if I can figure it out, and offer a print of it to anyone who wants one for $10.00 to help raise funds. Just hope I can figure it out!

Blue Jay Greeting card

I'm fooling around with some fun ideas for my bird greeting cards and would love some feedback. What do you think? This is the first one I've done. I'll be putting it on Etsy to see if anyone reacts to it!

Raven, finally!

Yeah! Blogger is finally letting me upload my Raven. I really love this one. I may have to buy a nice old curlicue black frame, something Victorian, and hang in in the living room. And make one for my daughter who just loves Halloween! All of you with Goth teenagers, hint, hint, they'd love a print of this one!!! LOL!

Raven Bird finished!

Well, again Blogger has not let me upload my finished Raven. Thinking of changing blog suppliers! I was able to upload the close up so I'll try loading this again in a bit. In the meantime, you can see it on my Facebook Fan page if that will allow me to upload it! Oi!!!!
Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://tinyurl.com/yzg2veb

Raven Bird close up

Raven Bird stage 2

Working hard on this one! Added lots of blues and purples and some of the blacks. Will probably go back in later and add more highlights here and there. I just love Raven's and Crows. I'm not sure if they are the same exact species, but I always assumed that the smaller ones were Crows and the larger ones were Ravens. Anyone have the details and like to share? Also looking for Ornothologist web sites that might be a good place to sell prints. If you happen upon one, please email me the url! Thanks. Hae a great day. It's gorgeous here, supposed to be sunny and in the 70's all week. Just perfect weather. My summer primrose, stella doro lilies and white daises will all be blooming like crazy this week.

Raven Bird stage 1

A pink and purple Raven? Sure, why not! I like to start with the lightest colors and highlights, even though most of this will be covered up with layers of other colors. I've just started to go over the edges of the feathers with some purple. This one IS much fun!!!

House Finch Bird finished!

Well Blogger is being a pain in the butt and won't let me upload another image of the full bird. Maybe in an hour or so! Oi! You can see it on my Etsy site. I just revised the site and made the close-up show up first! http://www.etsy.com/shop/roxy5235

House Finch Bird close up

House Finch, not Purple Finch?

Well I was kind of confused, thinking that a house finch and a purple finch were the same bird, but I found out different. This is a house finch. I wanted to draw a purple finch because it's the state bird of New Hampshire, so I better find some more reference. They are very similar, and neither are really purple, more a a raspberry red. Why? I have no idea, but I will try to find out! Maybe the person who named the purple finch was color blind!!! I have more to do to darken him up and finish the branch and I think I may add a bit of a background to bring out his color.

Moving forward

Well I've had a busy weekend. We went to Newfound Lake in Bristol NH and we stopped at a gift shop. I showed her some of my prints and she ordered 5 prints to see if they would sell (on commission). I was so happy. Then today I got an order for a greeting card with my rabbit on it. Then I got a haircut and saw some business cards from other companies on the shelf, so I asked David, the owner, If I could put some cards on his counter too, and he said sure! So I got up the courage to ask if I could hang some of my art in there (his walls were kinda bare on one side) and he said yes! So I'll be bringing him 5 tomorrow! This thing just seems to have a life of it's own now that I have started to ask people if they like my work! I'm in Heaven. Got to keep drawing! I think a New Hampshire State bird will get started tonight! Hope you all had a great weekend.