Showing posts with label robin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robin. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 December 2023

A Whimsical Christmas Ecard...

Animated gif showing a robin putting a bauble on a tree and then the words Merry Christmas come out of the robin's beak
Click, tap or right click here
(depending on your device) to download this
Christmas Ecard



Hello there, and hope life is treating you well.

It's a busy season for many, so will keep this brief, and announce that, in what has become a tradition here, this year's ecard is ready for you, with grateful thanks for your being here and reading these posts.

You're also welcome to download and send this to anyone else should you wish to do so. All I ask is that you don't sell it, and that the copyright stays with me.

How to download your ecard

To download, just click, tap or right-click (depending on your device) on the image above, and save to your own device before sending it on.

Hope this helps you (or someone you know) this season, and thanks again for taking the time to be here.

More soon.

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Bits, Bobs and Two Unexpected Visitors...

Hello there, and as ever, hope that life is treating you well.

Now, this is the time when you get to peep behind the curtain, and see how creativity really works, instead of the, "yes, one-neat-product-appears-every-week," version of events into which this blog might (accidentally) have lulled you before now.

line and wash digital watercolour sketch of a sunny park garden bench with wisteria around it.
"Wisteria Bench" Work in Progress
Digital Watercolour Sketch
in Rebelle 5,
by Clare Walker



First up, there's a park/garden  bench sketch. I drew it mostly to celebrate humble-but-wonderful  benches in the sun, and a vague idea that, when finished,  it might one day join what I might (in a grandiose moment) call the "garden art series,"...The start of which is in my Society6 shop, at least for now.


Line and wash digital watercolour sketch of a ball of pink roses on top of a be-ribboned pole.
"Roses on a Pole"
Digital Watercolour sketch
 in Rebelle 5, by Clare Walker



Next there's these roses-on-a-pole. The start of a wedding design? Maybe. Something for May Day? It could happen. But they got created because they were fun and reminded me of summer on a rainy day. Which is much more in line with how creativity really works than the "uploading-on-a-schedule," online world might suggest.

And then there's this post itself. For a perfect Easter post, in a world of productivity-over-creativity, there should be bouncing bunnies or similar. (And yes,  it's with some relief that I can announce that there'll be a more "correctly" seasonal post (if you want to call it that) *next* week.


Those Two Unexpected Visitors...

But if I had gone along with that particular script this week, then some real life inspiration which landed in the window box,  three feet away from my keyboard, wouldn't have got a look-in, almost literally.

Let me introduce you to the first of them. Both these photos were taken by my husband, so massive thanks to him (a.k.a. often on this blog  as, "The Computer Man").


Photo of a very round robin on a window box.
Round Robin-Photo by Jim Fernbank


Yes, it's a robin. That most famous of Christmas birds (in the UK, anyway), gracing us with his presence (like the snow of  a couple of weeks ago) much closer to Easter.

I had a vague memory from childhood that robins like to eat tiny pieces of cheese.

That turned out to be the understatement of the century. He clearly *adored* cheese. And soon had us trained to leave out cheese for him in response to loud and disappointed squeaks each morning.

But the cheese kept disappearing *so* quickly, that we became suspicious. And sure enough, a second, sleeker robin is also dining at the window-box buffet.


Photo of a more svelte robin bird on a window box.
Sleek Robin- Photo by Jim Fernbank



Which, combined with the fairly recent memory of snow, now meant that a snowy Christmas design just had to be begun, at least, even though you might not see a final, end result,  "on" something, for months.


Line and wash digital watercolour work in progress sketch, featuring a red robin in the snow.
Red Robin Sketch
Work in progress digital watercolour
by Clare Walker





(And yes, I know that my robin sketch features a red bird, and these robins are distinctly orange. But I'll save that debate (and the huge, bizarre, difference in popularity between robin designs in each colour) for a post nearer Christmas.


It's *all* OK...

Thanks for reading down this far. This post has rather wandered and wound its way round, a bit like how creativity itself seems to work. Am hoping that it's been fun to read, and that it might explain why things don't or can't always seem to appear, "When they *should*". 

Most of all, I hope that it may have inspired you to follow through on creative ideas, whenever and however they appear for you. It's all *OK,* and you, I, or anyone else, all have permission to follow those inner-and outer-promptings, as they happen.

 Even if that does mean that you draw robins at Easter :-) .

That's all for now. But my current plan is to be back a little sooner next week, with some genuinely spring-like or Eastery treats.

More soon.

__________________________

Monday, 14 December 2020

Free "Merry Christmas" Web Graphic (and day 89/100)

 

Merry Christmas in snowy hand-drawn letters with a robin

Hello there, and hope all's well with you. Today's offering is this quick little doodle in Krita, born of an experiment with drawing "snowy" letters.

It isn't big enough to look good for printing, but if you want to use it for your website or similar, feel free (click, right-click or tap and save accordingly, depending on your device).

As ever, credit and a link back here is *greatly* appreciated, but never required.


More tomorrow!

Thursday, 10 December 2020

A Rainbow Watercolour Robin... (Day 85/100)

 

A rainbow watercolour Christmas robin, in traditional pen and wash.
Oh life is so definitely, as the saying goes, "what happens when you're making other plans..."

Today's was going to be a *massive* post, all about how it's 10 years to the day since I first attempted to draw anything. (With a mouse,  because I didn't have a fancy graphics pen. Feeling like an idiot, and completely mystified about why I was trying this thing I ,"couldn't do". And it really was a "first-time" feeling...Prior to that, I'd decided, pretty firmly, that I "couldn't draw," when I was about three).

So, telling that story in detail was the plan. Then the internet went down. Now, this wasn't as bad as it seems...Am lucky on so many levels to be with The Computer Man.

But  our internet was down for just long enough that all there's time for is.... 1) Huge gratitude to my past self that I took that leap, and to you all for sticking with me...

And 2) sketching this little rainbow Christmas robin, in traditional watercolour and pen, but a "rainbow style, " that's as new to me in that medium as was trying to do art at all, a decade ago.

So I'm looking backwards and forwards today. Which turns out to be the perfect way to celebrate, after all...

More tomorrow.


PS. Have just added this design to my Redbubble shop. Depending on where you live, you may need to act very fast if you want this design to be part of your Christmas this year. (Obviously, this won't apply if you're reading this at a later date...;-)




Monday, 16 December 2013

Merry Christmas Robin Free E-Card...Again!

Merry Christmas Robin-Digital Painting by Clare Walker
Merry Christmas!

As I thought when this little guy was out-of-season, he *has * the e-card for The Computer Man and me this year.

As ever, we've donated our Christmas card cash to The World Land Trust (the awesome people who manage to help portions of the planet, people and animals, all at the same time. Win-win-win.)

If you'd like to do the same (or just use this ecard to send to others), please do. No strings, no stress (though I never object to a link back if you feel like it...;-)

Merry Christmas!

Monday, 8 July 2013

Christmas in July: Digital Painting of a Robin

Don't ask me why a robin seemed like the obvious thing to paint today. (In July. In London, with the thermometer finally going through the roof).

Anyway, I decided he could stay, because a) I love robins, b) He's the first bird I've ever attempted and c) He's a cutie.

NB. I reserve the right to re-publish him in December as our Christmas ecard!
Update: He's such a cutie that a couple of versions of this Christmas robin are available on items at Zazzle, such as this one: