Watercolor bird journal 2018

This past year I spent a good part of my art-making time painting in a couple 5.5" X 8" Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journals I got in March. I am filling one with bird paintings and the other with paintings of places I've been. I've really enjoyed practicing with watercolors and freehand drawing in these journals. I even tried painting en plein air once (it didn't go too well, though!).

Below are all twelve watercolor bird paintings I created in one of the journals. I used reference photos taken by myself and my brother. Each month I chose one or two species that we saw that month. The outlines of the first four are done with a Zebra Sarasa gel pen (my favorite pen), but I found out it wasn't exactly waterproof, so I switched to a Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen for the rest.
 

Sheep cartoon

I painted this 5" X 7" cartoon a few months ago using a pencil sketch I drew years ago. The sheep is one of my Katahdin ewes named Muffin. The cloud shapes in the background make it seem as though she is floating through the sky like a balloon, which is fitting because she is so pudgy and round!

Cardinal on geometric background

I just added the finishing touches to this large 30" X 15" acrylic painting today. A video of the painting process is in the works!

If you like DIY art projects like I do, you probably know that tutorials on how to create simple geometric paintings using masking tape are all over the internet. It's no wonder they're so popular - they're fun and easy to make and they look great. I used pretty much the same technique here, but I wanted to mix in a little bit of realism, so I added a bright red Northern Cardinal perched on one of the lines of the black and white design.