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." 

Oil Painting AUTUMN - Time for Fall Colors - Scenic

Painting From Your Own Photographic Images

A Feeling of Complete Ownership

     It was such a beautiful Fall day, the sky was blue and the yellows, oranges, and red colored leaves looked vibrant and spectacular! I was walking my routine brisk-walk and stumbled upon a gorgeous creek with just the perfect framing of tree's Vs blended colors. It was one of those hands up framing moments, I had to take the time to snap a picture, this is what I got. I knew immediately I would oil paint this one, and it would be wonderful. When you work from your own photography, there is a feeling of complete ownership. I have worked from other's photo's and it doesn't feel the same. I guess that's why I hear many say, work with what's around you. Paint what you know. 

Creek in Lincoln, CA

     

       As you can see the sun was on its way down, so this in the film industry is called the magic hour when everything seems aglow. Someday I'd like to do some Plein Air painting, (a fancy term for painting outdoors). I don't think I could handle the passersby, but I know there is always room for growth and it's true we need to challenge ourselves. 

     

        It felt good having both the photo and the painting the way I wanted it. I often put the photo on the back of the painting for reference when the painting is complete, then when I look back at both I compare the current views with past renditions. Sometimes I'll say to myself, "oh I should have done this, or I shouldn't have done that, but it is what it is, our growth and moods can shift, and change from day to day. Artists are discoverers!

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."