If you have a camera, why would you want to draw or paint a bird? With a camera you can capture all the details you need. Why learn how to draw?
When you are drawing, you concentrate on every detail of what you are looking at – the colors, the texture, the shapes, the depth, the values. And when I drew the bird (it’s going to be a cardinal – wait until I apply the paint), I learned about how the head, body, tail and feet are shaped. And I had to think about how to present the textures of the feathers.
Look forward to showing you the finished painting. Oh, and another reason to draw is your daughter (or son) might then take out her own piece of paper and draw her own bird. I just might show you the bird that my daughter drew as well.
My daughter did this painting about two weeks ago, after our winter vacation. What do you see?
Note: When I photographed it, the painting was curled; my daughter didn’t paint it with the curl at the top. Maybe I could have taped it down before photographing it. Next time.
Last week for the first time in almost ten years I had the opportunity to go cross-country skiing while my daughter and her friends were sledding. The red hydrant behind the skis is what qualifies this photo for Ruby Tuesday, a photo meme where you post any photo with some red. And this was before our bigger storm that dumped over a foot of snow. Strangely, the Boston area, which I visited this past weekend and is over five hours drive north of our area of New Jersey, had very little snow.
I learned a good gardening tip on Saturday night while driving from Newton, MA to Marlboro, MA (we were invited to a laser tag party). If one of your small trees gets a lot of snow on it, brush it off with a long broom as soon as you can. Otherwise, the snow may permanently bend the tree into an unhealthy shape. If that does happen, you may have to trim the tree and wait years until it gets back a normal shape.
Pottery Bell Hanging on My Porch
The bell part of this pottery that I made long ago never worked; it is supposed to chime with the wind. But it makes a pretty ornament on my porch.
Although I usually don’t go the political route on this blog, in some cases I make exceptions. Here is a post by Westbankmama about an anti-Israel week. A good place to start on this topic is Phyllis Chesler’s blog.
A friend wins fundraiser of the year for an organization that provides legal support and counseling to survivors of domestic violence.
I am leaving with my daughter in the morning on a trip, but I’ll be back by Monday morning. So if I don’t get a chance to visit your blog or respond on this one, that’s why. Have a great weekend everyone.
