Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
How neat that Draw-a-Bird Day falls on Mother’s Day in the US this month. I hope all Mothers everywhere have a wonderful day!
For this month’s Draw-a-Bird Day I painted an Anna’s Hummingbird.
Not without much trial and error though. This is my 4th attempt. The first 3 have been shredded. I couldn’t get the proportion right; it was too short, too fat, too long, or too thin.
After talking to Myriam about my trials with it she asked me if I had used a ruler or my grid? I hadn’t. On this last try I used the ole pencil ruler trick and got a lot closer to what I wanted in terms of size and proportion. Thank you Myriam!
I’ve been following watercolor artist Alan Owen on Youtube for quite awhile, and he always adds a matte board frame to his piece on completion, and the work that looked great before the matte frame looks more like art with it. I tucked that thought away to get some matte boards. Lately fellow blogger Jodi over at lifeinbetween.me has been adding a matte board frame to the work she shares and it just looks terrific. I went over to the art store early this week and finally bought a few to see how my bird watercolor pieces look. I like the way it looks. It dresses it up. 🙂 He-Man said I need to get frames now and hang them. We’ll see.
My muse for this Anna’s Hummingbird is an image I made in March this year.
Myriam thought it would make a wonderful subject for a drawing or painting. I think so too.
This is part of Draw-a-Bird Day over at Laura’s Createartevery.com . To see all the bird art posted today click here. Scroll down to the comments to see the links to all the posts shared this month.
To read the original story of how Draw-a-Bird Day got started click here
Images- Nikon Df| Delkin Digital Film| Nikkor 105mm & 200-500mm lenses| PS CC 2015
More to come…
Circadianreflections Blog 
Beautiful photo and artwork, Deborah! Great job!
Thank so much Wayne!
I am impressed!! you have his soul!
Thank you so much Hana! That made my day! 🙂
❤
Your hummingbird turned out lovely! And just like your photo! I’m impressed, Deborah! I like it with the mat too – will need to try this myself. 🙂
Thank you so much Jill! Have you framed your recent canvases? Those would look amazing framed, as would so many of your whimsical birds.
No, I really don’t know how – do I take them to a professional framer? I could use your expertise! 😍
I don’t know how to frame a canvas either! I don’t think even when I was a girl in school in art classes I painted on canvas. It’s always been paper for me.
If your watercolors and collages are on standard sized watercolor paper you can probably find standard matte boards at a craft or art store to fit them. Although some of your work even if on standard sized paper may need professional matting and framing though.
I’d take one of each of your works to a craft store or art store and poke around the matte boards, and/or frames and see what you find.
Or maybe someone who has framed canvas will chime in. 🙂
Thanks Deborah, I really need to start checking this out – I suppose I could check YouTube as they seem to have videos on about everything! 😊
You are so talented Deborah!
I wish! You’re very kind to say so though! xx
xoxo
So lovely, Deborah! Most definitely, you should mat and hang your work. 🙂
Thank you so much Donna! I think I should put He-Man in charge of curating what he wants on the walls since he’s not as critical as I am. 🙂
We are to ourselves our worse critic! 🙂
So true! 🙂
Oh Deborah! She’s beautiful 🙂 :-)! I’m so glad you got the proportions right (perfectly perfect!) on your 4th try. The colours are so light and bright, and your hummingbird is so sweet and delicate. Your painting makes me feel the calm and beauty of early morning birding. Thanks!
Sorry I’m a bit behind on my comments. I really wanted to make some progress on my hummingbird. No painting yet. But I did do a pen and ink and marker study. Now I can use your painting to help me create a delicate watercolour painting. Markers are so not delicate :-D!
Happy Mother’s Day :-).
So cute! I also do many trials sometimes. Always a good learning experience…(K)
Thank you so much K! Yes, an excellent learning experience! I painted version 5 Saturday night. Still learning! 🙂
as are we all…
Your Anna is beautiful!
Thank you so much Susan!
Aww Deborah, you’ve done a beautiful job with this hummingbird! Oh, it’s precious! Love it! So glad you joined us. And I’m really glad you’re painting. You have so many wonderful photographs to feed your art addition! Looks wonderful with a double mat, I tend to agree! Lovely work!
Thank you so much Laura! The matte does dress it up. 🙂
Thanks for having me and for hosting DABD!!
Thank you! My pleasure!
Oh, I wish I could draw like that! Maybe you can get a frame that is easy to change, so that you have a different painting every X days.
OMG Marga! To say you wish you could draw like that and you’re talking about my drawing! YOU MADE MY DAY!!! I’ll float on this all day! Thank you!!!
Thanks for that great idea! I’ll look for a frame that’s easy to open the back of so I can swap out the paintings. Painting this size and little vignettes is something I find I like a lot.
And the good thing is: I did mean it! I’m looking forward to more drawings, of birds or otherwise. Cheers!
Great job! This is just wonderful, Deborah. I think you should frame it, too.
Thank you so much Melissa! When I added the matte my thought was, “Wow, just like adding a blazer to jean! It dresses it up!” 🙂 I suppose matted and framed would feel the same.
Happy Mother’s Day Dear Friend!
Thank you, Deborah, I hope yours was fabulous 🙂