Costa's Hummingbird at Blue Agastache

I painted a bunch of small (5x7) watercolors last week of hummingbirds and flowers.  Most of them were Anna's, but this was my only attempt at a Costa's.  Seen in the right light they shine purple in the throat and cap.  Painting it was more difficult than I anticipated.  I occasionally see them in the garden and my dogs come running, curious as to what's making me squeal.

Orbit for Illustration Friday

The hummingbird orbits the flower on his approach.  

I started playing around with some new ideas and came up with this one for IF.  A long time ago I painted hummers on pottery for a living using a much more simplistic design.  I took out one of those bamboo brushes that I used to favor,  and tried to give this guy on paper just a bit more detail.  After all, if I do it exactly the same as I used to, how have I grown as an artist? 

Quail View

A couple of quail checking out the view.

Spin for Illustration Friday

Creative Every Day

A little 5x7 watercolor for today.

Tropical for IF

Here's my latest painting for Illustration Friday and Creative Every Day.  The topic was "Tropical" so instead of an island of palm trees I chose flowers and a blue morpho butterfly from Costa Rica.  I am a fan of orchids so I had fun creating a small painting of Costa Rica's national flower: Guaria Morada, or a Cattleya orchid.

CED photo

Spent the day playing in fresh snow with my daughter.  I'm pretty worn out so consider this is my creative post for the day, sharing the wonder of the white stuff.

Moon for IF, CED

I intended this to be the "cheese" moon my kids are always excited to watch rise over the mountain.  It got a little bit yellower than I wanted, but overall I'm happy with the picture.  We've been seeing the owl a lot lately, so I was glad to include him.  

And just for fun, here's a quick pic of the owl visiting.  It's huge!  If only I had new batteries in the good camera that day.

Creative Every Day

I had an idea for a painting, but first I wanted to just play around with the colors on hot press paper. One of my favorite things about watercolor is watching it mix and swirl into new colors right on the paper. I also like to pour cream into a glass mug of coffee and just sit there.

Creative Every Day

I've decided to participate in the Creative Every Day challenge once again.  I missed out on it last year, so to help myself get started I made a little drawing as a sort of inspirational reminder.  It's of a quail, one of my favorite little birds.  I enjoy watching them so much I've nominated this one to be my mascot for the year.