Flamingo Here Flamingo There!

 Ever Since My Teacher Miss Placed My Flamingo Art In College....

I Hadn't Attempted To Do Another One, Until Now!

    It's true! He said he lost it, but how does a teacher loose a students possession that she trusted him to keep safe. I worked hard on that flamingo and I got an A on the project, as I was hoping for, but where did it go? Talk about the tables being turned, did the dog eat it? Lol. 

     Ever since I've lost that piece, I've been wary of turning things in. I didn't realize it affected me so much until I found this picture from the 90's in a file. As I looked at the drawing, I asked myself, I need to get over it and draw a flamingo again. So I did.

Photo I Drew From
1990's at S.F. CA Zoo

Finale! Part 3 of New Flamingo Drawing!   

    I find flamingo's fascinating and weird. What I love about drawing is that it gives you a chance to really look and examine what you're drawing up close and personal. By that I mean, the shape of the neck,, the skin color of those twiggy legs and feet, the strange black, extraordinary beak that looks perfect for crushing things. 

    After watching them do their thing, observing their nature, I noticed how they love standing on one leg. So when I researched it a bit, evidently there is no proven explanation as to why they do this. The most frequent explanation is because they are conserving energy, which could be true, but there is no scientific evidence to prove it. Maybe it's something in the DNA that says this is the way we do it? One does it, so they all want to do it kind of mentality? Lol. If they're cold the logical thing would be to draw the leg up closer to the body and feathers for warmth, that's what I'd do if I were a flamingo. 🦩Ooooh, Halloween is just around the corner. I don't think I've ever seen a flamingo costume. Yes I found one.

   Florida is the state to find flamingo's in the U.S. I'd love to see them in the wild flying and being interdependent as they are. Birds don't try, they just are! I love all the birds, the weird ones especially. They are an unleashed symbol of hope!  Emily Dickinson once said about birds, "Hope is the thing with feathers." 

Rocket Raccoon?

Alliteration Book Progress

"Letter Rr rallies using a Raccoon, a Rabbit, Two Rockets and a Rat!"

    

I'm Designing One of the Book Pages for...

A to Z 26 Alphabetic Alliterations: Apple Alligator to Zucchini Zebra

    I enjoy drawing and coming up with ideas for pages with funny scenarios pertaining to picture books.  I decided to attach alliterations attuned to art which also included the sing-song sound of silly symmetry. Rock 'N Roll rhetoric! Imagine spending hours of time everyday making up sentences where the first letter of each word must be the same, like this example, which is considered a tongue twister; 

• "A big bug bit the little beetle but the little beetle bit the big bug back."

• "The timely tugboat was in a terrible tornado!"

or

"Which way did the wallabies wander?"

    I fell in love with the idea of creating an alliterations alphabet book because I wanted to make funny scenarios for each letter of the alphabet. It was almost a game trying to make a sentence using the same beginning letter in each word of the sentence. I didn't know it at the time, but you can have an alliteration using just two words, like for example; "The mellow moon is on the rise." Or, "The mellow moon looks mystic tonight." or "The mellow moon looked like a magnificent marshmallow. Your mind will start thinking in alliterations as you keep making them. It's rather fun. "The moon melted into molten marshmallow would make a magnificent Smore." You could turn it into a family game, where whomever makes the longest alliterated sentence is the winner. You'll have 26 tries starting with the letter "Aa." The letter "Xx" being the most difficult.

    In many ways alliterations make expressing yourself in a more dynamic way. I believe our attention is drawn by hearing the same sounding words. It is captivating for some reason, maybe because it sounds sing-song. The repetitive sound becomes a tongue-twister, and that's alway fun. 

    Try to say the sentence three times fast. An alliteration is mostly based on the repetitive same sound you hear as you're reading it. 

Alliterations have been around for a long time, since the 1600's so they are nothing new. Shakespeare used them in his play Hamlet. Scenes from Act 1, as Claudius speaks to Hamlet...

           'And we beseech you, bend you to remain here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.'

    There are a lot of well know writers who used alliterations; Milton, Tennyson, Langland, Fitzgerald,  Dickinson, Hemingway, Joyce, Melville, etc. Here's one from D. Thurston from her, "Thank You for the Thistle;

                "Gee, Great Aunt Nellie, why aren't any golden goldfinches going to the goodies?" "Oh," said Aunt Nellie, "They thrive on thistle and I thoroughly thought that I threw the thistle out there."

Spacial 3D Cube Project Idea For Teachers and Students

Learning Eye-Hand Coordination and Small Hand Motor Skills

Manipulation, Patterns, Stacking, 

    Sometimes I come up with ideas that teachers and homeschool mom's and dad's might be interested in using in their curriculum. I think this would be a great spacial awareness project for teachers to mix and match with students in accord with their fine motor skill and pattern making capabilities Three dimensional looking blocks can be printed, cut out, colored by hand or one can use the pre-colored pattern I've included. 

    Maybe you'd rather try making three dimensional cubes yourself. It is great for spacial awareness. The ideas is to be able to stack them, placing them one on top of the other like in the video.

     Learn how to color 3D blocks, cut them out, and stack them up. The more you make the more fun it is. There are two patterns (below) that you can easily print out. One is colored version and the other is not. 

    I challenge you and your students to build a large paper tower on the floor. If you do, send me a picture of it and I'll post it on my blog and give you some recognition and kudos!

    Be sure to subscribe to GoGo Daat! Thanks

Colored Cube Pattern or https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XKI0WAiTHvtuoMh8GruyxGw4SjHwjgyx/view

Place Cards are Fun for Dinner and Get Togethers!

 Cat & Dog Display Name For Seating Arrangement

A Good Design For a Kids Gathering

    If you are having a get togethers, a fun way to spruce up the table is by using place-cards. Sometimes, especially when it's mixed company, people feel more comfortable knowing ahead of time where they are going to sit. Of course you may find people rearranging your cards, unbeknownst to you. If you are chill, you'll just let it happen, if anything it lets you know that so and so wants to be near so and so for future planned gatherings. 

    Although this design I'm sharing with you is more attune for kids and a small kids gathering, who says you can't create some sort of theme card for adults, ie; Pumpkins for Halloween, Turkeys for Thanksgiving, Stacked coin image for Poker night, Books for Book Club, Tea cups for a Tea Party, you get the idea.

    In this video, I show you how I went about crafting the image and place card. Below is the actual pattern that you can print out.

    The other thing that is nice about a place-card for kids is that they can take them home along with their goodie bag. They will be eager to use them at their own table at home. They may even want to make one for each member of their own family.

    Here are some of the items I used to create the place-cards: Enjoy!

Pattern for dog and cat

Needed:

Firm white paper, scissors, pencil, markers, printed pattern

• I used a Bristol board paper
• I used Prisma Color Pens
  
  
  

Lavender Iris Project - Mixed Media - Prisma Pens -

Doing Art on a Rainy Day 

Helps Lift Up Spirits During Covid!

    Ok, I admit it my emotions have been all over the map these Covid months and I'm sure we are all in the same frustration at times. The thing is we need to find some things that help us to cope with that frustration. Keeping a positive attitude is not easy when so many things are working in the opposite direction. Here are my suggestions to keep from falling apart: 

        One, realize your not the only one going through this pandemic, we are in it together.

        Two, "this too shall pass!" It's not going to last forever and we are gaining some headway, hallelujah!

        Three, take a big breath and let it out very slowly whenever you feel overwhelmed,                                  (do this in 3's and when I say slowly, I mean slowly).

        Four, do something you know will make you feel good once you have accomplished it.

    I took my own advice and created this video for you. The art part was the most fun, but for me if I can't share it with someone...you get the idea. Spring is just around the corner and soon the iris will be popping open and helping us to smile.

     Pray for others who are worse off than you, help by giving in some way, giving always gives my heart a joyful big boost. Count your blessings.

        Six, (extra thought) take a picture of your art and do a four up copy on some 40lb paper, cut them out and snail mail as postcards. This will pay the love forward. 😀 

Seed Pod Trio -:- Subject Pastel Artwork-:- Live Drawing

 Appealing Simple-Minimal Look 

    I Took a walk and found this interesting twig with seed pods that are very unusual. I Google Lensed it and nothing came up that looked similar. So I'm still curious as to what they are, and please leave a comment if you have any idea. The Autumn colors are what pulled me in and then the black seed that is so striking. Could have been the other way around, regardless, the beautiful dried pods intrigued me to draw them and my pastels became the medium. I may watercolor them as well and see how that works.

    It's amazing to me, there is nature all around and finding a subject to paint or draw , well it's endless. "Paint what is around you," are words you'll often hear from artists out there in the art world. As far as cameras go, It's nice to have phones now that capture the fine details. I prefer painting or drawing from real life like I did in this particular drawing if I'm able.

    For one of my assignments in drawing class at Chico State, we had to draw a picture using 4 different human faces where one had to be from a real life pose, like a person sitting in front of you. Then when we examined the drawing, we had to try and guess which drawing was the real life image. It was interesting to see the differences. Most people guessed my real life image correctly, it was my roommate  Debbie, who was nice enough to pose for me.

Here is the video:

NuPastel chalky 

This is the Thumbnail to look for on my Youtube channel 

Thumbs ups are appreciated.

Self Portraits Are More Difficult Than You Think Ask Van Gogh

Van Gogh Did Several Self-Portraits!

It's a Challenge to Draw and Paint Yourself!

All of these Van Gogh self-depictions were done in the same year 1887

Van Gogh, by Frank Elgar, FA. Praeger Publishers, NY. 1958

        I believe self portraits are some of the hardest work to do, but every artist who calls themselves an artist should make an effort to do one.  Start off with a photo that you really like. I like to see some sort of emotion taking place because it is more interesting to the viewer in my opinion. 

    Van Gogh probably had to use some sort of reflective devise (mirror) in order to do his rendition. That would actually be another challenge in itself and might have a better 3D quality you miss in a photograph. I remember a professor at Chico State always encouraged his students to draw or paint from a live subject if possible, and I quite frankly agree.

    I would have loved to watch Van Gogh paint live. Here is my attempt. If you enjoyed the video, please consider subscribing to GoGo Daat channel, it's totally free. Thank You!

Video of my self portrait