Boo and Kiwi’s background are done, they’re a nice grape purple with a deep violet shadow. Green and purple are M’s favorite colors (my client’s daughter), so they’ll be really cool portraits since those will be the primary colors.

I may add more to the background once the birds have been painted, to give them a bit more of a pop art feel. Realism in the foreground against a funky pop art background would be perfect for a teen bird lover, I think!

I chose a really beautiful royal blue gradient for Badger’s portrait. She’s a silver husky with brilliant icy blue eyes so this shade of blue in the background will just make her come alive on the canvas. When the background dries, I’ll work in her underpainting.

Many, many portrait sketches = lots and lots of art to create this week!

Here’s what’s on my easel:

Badger is a certified therapy dog, she is allllways happy. I love that she’s smiling for her portrait. This will be an 8×8 oil portrait.

This is Morris, an orange tabby who recently crossed over the rainbow bridge.  He’ll also be done in oils, on a 6×6 canvas.

I’ve painted Callie before, but this portrait of her will have much more meaning since it is in loving memory.  Another 6×6 oil portrait.

Simba is a stunning orange tabby. Also in oil on 6×6 chunky wrapped canvas.

 

This yellow-sided green cheeked conure is Kiwi, she’s also having a 6×6 oil portrait. Kiwi and Boo (below) belong to Lisa’s daughter – these are a birthday surprise. So ssssh.

Boo was a beautiful parrotlet that passed away, her portrait pairs with Kiwi’s in 6×6.

This pose of Claire is just gorgeous, big curls falling down into her face – this is the line drawing for a 4×6 graphite drawing that All Adither won in January for giving me the bestest birthday wish.

After – I dunno, a lifetime of doodling on random things like kleenex, napkins, placeholders, envelopes or any piece of scrap paper I could get my hands on, I finally bought some Moleskine sketchbooks to carry around in my purse with me. Brilliant, right? It’s about time. It takes me a while to catch on, what can I say.

Yesterday while we were out, I decided to take out my moleskine, and the sock I wear on my hand (which made some people raise their eyebrows), and doodle. But what to doodle? I was lost for a minute. The kids went off to play, and I closed my eyes to see if I could “see” anything in there that I wanted to doodle – but nothing. I needed to doodle. CRAVED it. Especially since I will be drawing and painting all week next week. Getting back in the saddle, that’s what it was really all about.

So, what do you doodle when your mind is blank? You doodle what’s in front of you, that’s what.

This is the first page, how’d I doodle? Can you tell where we were, without looking at the “title”?

I’ve recently modified my message that displays after a guest leaves their first comment on my blog. I’ve received a few rude comments that leave me scratching my head, wondering how on earth you’d leave a snarky/rude/hurtful/hateful comment on the internet. I mean really, why wouldn’t you just click the little “X” in the top right corner of your browser window? Why do people find that being deliberately rude is such an impossible urge to ignore?

A few months ago, after receiving a slanderous comment about one of my clients on my blog, I decided to moderate all first time commentors. Since then, I’ve felt an added level of security – those people won’t even get one second of air time on my blog. Those people? They suck.

So here’s the message, revised:

Your first comment has gone into moderation.

I’ll release your comment very soon, if you’re a real person.
(and you should also be KIND, and drama free.)
(oh and funny would be GREAT. I love funny.)
Please come again!
🙂

Please note: If you’ve used every smiley I own just for fun, or said something rude, unkind or thoughtless that is going to serve no other purpose than to insult or hurt someone you don’t even know, I’ll save you the embarrassment and delete your comment before it ever hits the world wide web. I know you don’t want EVERYONE on the internet to know you don’t think before you hit that “submit” button!

You can thank me later. 😉

Now in WordPress, you can customize your own message in your themes comments.php file. Just look for this line of code:

< ?php if ($comment->comment_approved == '0') : ?>

Beneath it there should be some text that says “your comment is in moderation” or something plain. Spruce it up. Personalize it with your own message.

Be sure that your text ends just above the < ?php endif; ?>.

It doesn’t take too much effort to set your blog to moderate – go into your “discussion” options and set “author must have previously approved comment.” – and that’s it. Once you approve someone, you don’t have to do it again.

And you, my friend, get to have the last word with that jerk that doesn’t know when to click the little “X”. Totally worth it.

This is the happy couple that has decided to move into our birdhouse this year. I’m showing you this because I received a couple of interesting comments on Mr. Poofy Sparrow yesterday, and I thought you might find it interesting and useful to be able to identify male and female birdies. I know I am always a little annoyed when someone calls my pet (say, Dusty, for example) a “he”, because she is clearly a she, at least in my head. I like to know. I have to know. God forbid I have gender crises on behalf of my own critters or the birds I watch and enjoy!

In birdwatching, there’s one rule of thumb with identifying the gender of a bird.

The boys are always prettier.

I know. Not fair. Girls do all the work, but the boys get the good looks.

So in the photo above, the sparrow to the left has more striking markings and more vivid hues. He’s the boy. The girl is pretty too, in her own dull brown innocent way. Once you see two of them together, it’s very easy to identify their gender. We have couples who frequent our feeders – cardinals, house finches, goldfinches, red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, sparrows, cowbirds and red winged blackbirds.

We also have mourning doves but I still have a hard time determining who’s who unless one poofs up and starts chasing the other one around in circles, the dirty little bird.

Sometimes, I wanna do exactly what this little house sparrow is doing.

Hunker down in a quiet place away from the wind and just go “poof”.

You know what I’m sayin’?

Hubby hung a birdhouse early last spring, it sat empty all year. It was a little sad, as we had hoped *somebirdy* would want to live there. Not a chance. It is pretty close to the tree and feeder, and we thought that might be the reason.

This year – it looks like we’ll have tenants! Chirp chirp! I’m excited, especially since I had a sad experience with some baby sparrows a couple of years back when we demolished our carport. (We found a nice lady who rescues wildlife and took the babies to her, last we heard a couple of them made it.)

Both mom and dad have been getting things ready in there, so we helped them out a bit by adding some nesting material in a suet feeder for them.

Meanwhile, I am also occupied. Of course. My schedule is jam packed and the spring weather and sunshine have gotten me back on my treadmill so my flabular thighs fit into my summer wardrobe. Speaking of which, I had better get movin’, shakin’ and jigglin’!

Happy Easter.The girls eggs are beautiful, I couldn’t resist sharing them, and the verse. A couple more eggs after the jump. Caution – one of the eggs is a little cracked.

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