More Year of the Doodle Art Play

I'm still loving my Year of the Doodle planner/art journal.    I love the small size for each day, the beginning backgrounds, and the prompts.  Well, most of the prompts- sometimes I ignore them and do my own thing.

I turned the splotches of color into  little  birds, adding a few more with watercolor pencils so I'd have a whole flock.

I continue playing with doodling.   I'm reading Danny Gregory's The Creative License and appeciating his reminder to draw what you see, not what you think you see.    It is interesting that when you really look at something, it is often not quite the way you see it in your mind .

It's no secret that I love Vivian Swift's art and blog.  In a recent post she explained how she paints teacups, making the tea in the cup lighter at the far rim  as that's the way it is when you look at it.  Sure enough - again, what you think it is isn't always how it really it.   I'm trying to really look at things as I try to draw and , who knew, it makes my drawing more realistic.

The picture on the right started out as the watercolored squares - so fun to turn them into faces!

As if this book isn't fun enough, our Montana grand  loves working in hers.  I love anything that helps me stay connected to this far-away sweetie.

A Collaborative Work on Canvas by William and Yaya, 2016

Our grandson, William, made this abstract painting that I've had hanging in my art space.   I look at it a lot, and lately I began to see a bird in his painting- the purple and orange wings and the branch-like swoosh at the bottom.  Today I brought our bird to life!

I made a copy and played with it before tackling (and maybe ruining) the original.  I added a little additional line to the purple wing, continued  the red outline, and added birdie-essentials like legs, an eye and beak, and voila, our birdie appeared.

This isn't our first collaboration.  Here we are making a shirt for the 4th of July.

And here he is, working on another masterpiece.

This fat budgie makes me smile every time I look at it!

Breaking News : A New Grand Baby

I've been in Austin for a few weeks for the arrival of this sweet baby James:

He is the little brother of William, who loves to hold him and shower him with drool kisses!

While James snoozed, William and I were busy.

Being silly

Driving fast

William is an early riser - like 5 a.m. early, so we got in some digger driving before the workmen arrived.

More early morning activity - painting, with careful color selection - "now I need blue".

Making muffins with the cutest helper .

And a shirt for 4th of July parade.

Dousing Grandpa with the water gun.

And taking my turn pushing the two cuties in their new stroller.  Austin heats up early, so we head out  early before it gets too hot.

James is a mellow little guy who loves to sleep on his people. Here he is  sleeping on his mom's legs - one of his favorite sleeping spots.

Sleeping on (and with) Grandpa is another favorite.

And of course, resting with his beautiful mom is his very favorite.

While I know it is the natural progression of things, seeing your daughter with her two babies is pretty amazing.  I am so fortunate that I got to spend time with them and welcome James to the family.   There were so many special moments, but having William call me, "Sweetie Pie" is at the top of the list!    

They live far away and do their best to help us stay connected - FaceTime, photo streams and lots of call - and tickets to visit.   Lord knows I've blabbed on and on  here several times about my struggle be more gracious about dealing with grown children living far away.   It takes effort on every one's part to stay connected and I'm happy that they work hard to include us in their lives.

The Austin family, with baby James' little head barely peaking out of his wrap.