T stands for....ink and pen

You know, that I sketch a LOT of birds (and occassionally some other animals or things). I do oit while watching tv or being on the phone, in boring meetings or while sitting on a park bench.

I mostly use a pencil for these sketches and am able to correct a wrong line. Every now and then the only pen available is a fineliner or a fountain pen. I decided I need to practice this a bit more: sketching things without the possibility to erase.

This Eurasian Wren is very small and done with a calligraphy pen.

Some days ago I filled a whole page with garden birds, while watching tv and using a fountain pen with black sketching ink. Not all turned out good, proportions off etc., but overall I  love them.

Robin is always easy and recognisable due to the markings.

And so is the Wren. Technically only an orb with a beak and a tail. That's how I started to learn drawing birds and I found such simple how-to's like this one by John Muir Laws very helpful, as talent is not everything and practice is the key.

The same is the Long-Tailed Tit, which is also only an orb with a long tail and a short beak. A fellow birder told me, that most birds only need very few lines to be recognisable and he is true.

And now for the drink to join in on Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T stands for....: A co-worker gave me this Pumpkin Spice Tea. It smelled good, but like many teas, it didn't hold what it was promising. :( Hope your tea experience was better today!

Friday Face Off: Guinea Fowl

 I'm a bit late to Friday Face Off, but here we go. In March I do a drawing challenge called #animalmarch and there's a prompt to paint every day.

Guinea Fowls are fun birds with beautiful coloring on their heads and gorgeous dotted feathers.

I painted these on some cardboard strips, that I get from a friend. They are used for marking transport boxes and are thrown in the bin after single use (there's often only a number on the back).

I've already drawn a  lot of animals on them and hope you like my entry for FFO. Thanks, Nicole for hosting!

T stands for....the coffee discussion and a new (old) watercolor set!

About two years ago I changed my employer and shortly after I brought home my private office things, including a Winsor & Newton Sketcher's Pocket Box, this beautiful little watercolor set went missing.

After waiting for two years for it to show up again, I finally gave in and bought a new one, when it was on sale. (I expect the old one showing up any time soon.:D)

I also ordered some Clairefontaine watercolor paper, as it was highly recommended to me by an online art friend.

New colors and new paper all in one is always a challenge, but here we go with a familiar topic: Birds! Starting with rough pencil sketches,....

....then adding some watercolor. Always keeping in mind, that....

....these are only sketches and not finished paintings.

Really love how this little Blue Tit turned out.

Great Tit.

And now for the coffee discussion and my entry ticket to "T stands for....". What's your favorite way to make coffee? A fully automatic bean to cup machine? A filter machine? Or the classic Italian Moka Express? Please share!

 

T stands for....Apple Spritz and daily sketches

 Last week a special girl turned 18 and requested by her parents I had to remake a special gift for her. I once decorated a hairbrush with a pyrography dragon and she refused to throw the old hairbrush away. But now she finally got a new one. :)

Then here are some more of my watercolor sketches. I try to sketch at least a bird a day, mostly pencil, but also a lot of watercolors lately. Here's a Night Heron.

I try to keep in mind, that these are sketches and not finished paintings. Makes it easier for me to accept, when the sketches don't turn out "perfect". Tiny Goldcrest in the bramble.

A Greenfinch on a wild rose.

An Eagle Owl sitting on a stump.

And now to qualify for Bleubeard and Elizabeth' T stands for, I'll share a drink, that became a favorite of mine over the past couple of weeks. It's an Apple Spritz (hope that's the correct term) from local apples. My region here in Southern Germany is characterized by many orcherds with very old fruit trees, mostly apples and pears, but also plums, cherries, mirabelles and so on. They were planted  decades or longer ago by not only farmers, but many people to make secure their supply with fresh fruit and canned/bottled goods during winter like juice. These days there is a revival of these orchards called ,,Streuobstwiesen" in German.

Sharing with Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T stands for....

How does your garden grow?: Snow and first sowings

Two weeks ago, right after I thought, that winter is over and after having some sunny days, we got....SNOW. Yes, I know, some of you have very harsh winters with lots of snow, but here, we don't have lots of snow days for some years now.

I love snow days, especially when I don't have to go to work, and so I enjoyed the views and did some indoor sowings. Besides onions I usually sow chilis, peppers and eggplants mid February, as they need some time germinating and growing.

I have lot of varieties from small open source seed sellers, as I don't want to support the "BIG" firms for several reasons. I wrote about that more than once and I strongly recommend to find and support such sellers, too, if you grow your own veggies.

Sooooo how does your garden grow?

T stands for.....some linoprints

After starting over with linocut about two years ago (like many of us I did that back in school and then never again), I always had problems getting the print rubbed on the paper correctly, so it looks nice. Rubbing with a wooden or metal spoon or a felt baren wasn't doing the job for me good enough. And the time it takes. OK, so what? Get a press? But most of these presses cost a small fortune. Then a fellow printmaker recommended Woodzilla presses to me. I bought a little little A5 one in blue (see below, photo by Woodzilla).

Let's make it short: I LOVE the press! Makes printing much faster and the prints are cleaner than the ones I made by hand. Here are some card sets I made: 

Insects with and without colored accents.

Some beach themed cards with additional stamping and a colored sun.

And than I was even brave enough to start a project I was eyeing for a long time: To make one of my watercolors into a jigsaw multicolored print block. So I chose my kingfisher paiting.

Once the block is all finished, ....

....you must be brave and cut it into pieces along the chosen lines.

I only had the time to do some test prints so far and printing with acrylics isn't ideal, even if you mix the colors with a retarder to make them dry slower. So the first colored print was damaged, as the block for the blue cap of the kingfisher stuck to the paper and damaged it, when I pulled th print. But you get the idea. I already oredered some linoprint colors and will try again.

For the drinks and to qualify for Bleubeard and Elizsbeth's T party,  I have a question for you? If you drink tea, do you also drink cold brew teas? I tried some of them, but not all are good. The one pictured taste very minty, but like chewing gum, a bit artificial.

Linking to Altered Book Lover for T stands for....! Happy T Day!

 

How does your garden grow?

 Writing this in the middle of a heavy snow shower taking place outside my window, while the pictures were taken in much sunnier weather.

For the second time I'm growing garlic in my garden during winter. Three varieties planted in November are now showing the first green (ok, light pink in the first photo).

Garlic: Messidrome, Germidour and Sprint are the varieties I planted.

I have four rows in the garden and one pot on the terrace. All looking great, but the pot seems to have it a bit warmer, as I planted this one later than the rows in the garden and it came up faster.

Endives are looking good, but where way bigger around this time last year. I think the low temps in January caused this, although I covered them with a fleece.

Celery

The rhubarb is only showing a small ball of leaves.

Besides the veggies there are some wildflowers showing their leafves already: Rose Campion (Silene coronaria), which is not really a wildflower here, but grows everywhere in my garden.

Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)

I cut down the wild teasels from last year, but I'm sure, there is some offspring somewhere in the garden. They were about 2.5 metres high from all the rain we got last summer. Did you know these plants store rain water in their leaves? Good thing for birds and insects.

And right in front of my compost ( the most impractical place in my garden for BIG flowers) there grow Mullein (Verbascum spec.) and Evening Primrose (Oenothera spec.). Maybe I'll use the other compost during summer. :D

Also the two cichory plants (Cichorium intybus) are coming again and I'm really looking forward to their blue flowers, which are only open until around 11 am, when it gets too warm. Then they are gone. They also grew up to 2.5 metres last year and had hundreds of blue flowers over months.

How does your garden grow?