Draw A Bird, June 2021

One of the most exciting signs of spring and summer to me is when the hummingbirds migrate north and return to our feeders.

Hummingbird Homecoming

Hummingbirds have a very high metabolism and must eat all day long just to survive. They feed every 10-15 minutes and visit 1,000-2,000 flowers each day. Besides nectar from flowers and feeders, hummingbirds eat small insects, beetles, ants, aphids, gnats, mosquitoes, and wasp. That reminds me, it’s time to freshen up the sugar water in our feeders. Do you have hummers in your area?

Draw A Bird Day, April 2019

Each year we look forward to the return of our hummingbirds sometime this month, hopefully within the next week or two. I started putting out nectar already in case we have any early arrivals, but so far we’ve not seen any.

Waiting for the Hummingbirds

Even though some artists draw a bird on the 8th of each month, today is the official yearly Draw A Bird Day! Do you feed your yard birds? Have you had any hummers yet?

PS: I was really happy with the loose effect achieved in this painting. Why is it that sometimes it is a struggle but other times it rolls right off the brush? I’ll take the win when I can 🙂

World Watercolor Month 2017 – Wrap Up, Week 3

I am a little late with my week three wrap up of World Watercolor Month, but here goes:

Sunflower 1

Sunflower 2

Sunflower bud

Continuing to practice flowers from the Fresh Floral class at art-classes.com, I painted some sunflowers in bloom as well as buds.

Dandelion

This one had too many petals, so I made it become a dandelion 😁

Next were lessons on roses – a whole bouquet of them!

Bouquet of Roses

Now to put them all together, the mission was to make a wreath of all the flowers we had learned.

Heart Wreath

Then I became sidetracked and felt like painting a bird, so I did.

Hummingbird and Flower

The plan for week 4 is to finish up the Fresh Floral class and then paint whatever else comes to mind.  Thanks for stopping by!

Hummingbird, #WorldWatercolorGroup

How lucky that hummingbird was the prompt today because it happens to be the official Draw-A-Bird Day 2017!   I tried to paint this hummingbird in flight but had some difficulty showing much movement.  Oh well, I think she is cute anyhow.

Hummingbird in Flight

According to the hummingbird migration map website they have finally arrived in our area, but none has visited our feeders yet.  Hopefully we will see one within about a week or so.  Have they arrived near you?

Draw A Bird Day, September 2016

This hummingbird sketch was painted in my Moleskine sketchbook on a hot summer evening a few weeks ago.  We have two hummingbird feeders and at least four hummingbirds who visit, and they spend much more time chasing each other off than actually drinking nectar.  It is fascinating to watch them hover, dive, and chirp angrily at each other, and just as interesting to watch their really long tongues lap up the sugar water.

We’ve had such fun observing them this summer and will miss them when they head south in a month or so.  However, I am eager to move into autumn, my favorite time of the year.