Queen Sheba and her friends

Here's another drawing for the children's book, Brave tiny.  The duck was called Oreo in real life, but in the book she's known as Queen Sheba.  The other two ducks, the two on the left, did not get names in the book, but one was named Buffy2 and the other was named Latte or Big Daddy2.  Oreo is the black and white duck.

This is a colored pencil drawing on paper scanned into the computer and color adjusted.  I wanted it to look "sketchy", so it's not as polished as my usual work.

Tommy

This is a colored pencil drawing of Tom the Turkey Duck (Muscovy) who lived at Lake Murray.  I drew this as part of illustrating my book "Brave Tiny" about a killdeer family that lives at Blue Lake, a made-up lake in San Diego.

I haven't decided if I am going to further work on the background or on Tom, himself, yet.

Mom and ducklings finished

Here is the finished product that will be going on T-shirts beginning with mine!

Of course, the t-shirts won't have my signature and date on it.

Mama and her ducklings

I still have to put some finishing touches on this acrylic painting of Fish Food Mama and her five ducklings.  One of the things I have to do is create a white, transparent background so I can put them on Cafepress items.  I also need to do some more detail work on a few of the ducklings.

Independent duckling

Acrylic on paper.  This is one of five little mallard ducklings I saw back in May.  Four stuck together and stayed with mom while this little run ran up to me and stood at my feet.

You can buy things with this picture on Cafe Press in my store, Just Ducky by Darlene.

Last Curlew Finished

I think I'm finished with my acrylic painting of an Eskimo Curlew.  It's called "The Last Curlew Calls to its Ancestors".

The last curlew calls. . .

Here is a painting I am still in the process of doing.  It's an acrylic painting of an Eskimo curlew which is either extinct or very close to it.  If I finish it, the full title is going to be  "The last curlew calls to its ancestors because that is all he has left."  I just started painting the bird.

Japanese Brush Painting Class

Today, I went and took a Japanese brush painting class at the Tijuana River Esturarine National Research Reserve.  It was International Migratory Bird Day today.   I've never done this type of painting before.  The paper was all crinkly from shrinking due to the water and wet paint.

Above is my bird on a branch, below are my practice birds.  I had to learn how to do the brush strokes as handling a brush is much different in this type of painting than it is in my traditional type of painting:

Don't laugh at this next one.  This was a long-billed curlew done in a different style.  Unlike realistic western art, this type of art depends more on brush work than on realism.  I know this isn't the best Japanese brush painting of a curlew, but it is my very first one.

Crow

I just finished this 11 x 14 drawing of a crow that I started at the San Diego Audubon Bird Festival a few weeks ago.  We were told to draw the crow and not do any erasing.  I took a picture of the model to finish it up at home.  It's done in Prismacolor pencil.

San Diego Bird Festival Art Class

There was a big San Diego Bird Festival today and they had a beginning bird art workshop.  I went and they had me draw using a model of a crow.  I brought my own colored pencils.  I didn't get to finish it.  I know this isn't the best scan, but I'll try to get a better one when I finish it.  It's 9 x 12'

Killdeer chick painting

This is the first painting that I've done in a long time!  It's of a little killdeer chick in acrylic on un-stretched canvas, 9 x 12.  I took a photo of Squiggy the killdeer chick and enlarged it on my iPad for a reference.  Originally, it was just supposed to be still water in the background with reflections.  But, as I worked on it, I noticed that it began to look like a beach during low tide, which would be very appropriate for a little killdeer to be running around on.

Pepper the duckling

I did this so that it could be my avatar on Backyardchickens.com. It's a little black duckling I named Pepper who grew up at Lake Murray this year.

It's done in colored pencil on Canson drawing paper.

Pool Phoebe

I just finished this small, 4 x 6 colored pencil drawing of the black phoebe that visits our pool:

Little colored pencil duckies

Here's a colored pencil drawing I did with three duckies. Sorry they look a little distorted:

Little baby duck

I did this little colored pencil drawing on paper of a little baby mallard duckling.

Almost done on the killdeer painting

I am just about done on this acrylic painting. I am currently taking feedback from other artists so that I can put the finishing touches on it.

Another killdeer chick drawing.

Here is another killdeer chick drawing I did on paper with Prismacolor colored pencils.

Killdeer painting still in progress

I'm still working on this. It's been a struggle, but here's an update. Still not done yet. It's acrylic on canvas.

Update on Killdeer Painting

I am going very slow on this painting as it has gotten kinda complicated for me. I am not used to working slowly on the fine details like this painting has.

"Fish Food Ducklings"

I've been having a ball watching all the little babies around Lake Murray. I call these ducklings the "fish food ducklings" because, when they first hatched, they were living in an area with a lot of large fish that could eat them. There are three, total, but I think there was four originally. One kept going off on his own and I think that's why he went missing.

Anyway, here's the two girls on the shore of the lake.