EDM #125 - Bird

mixed media, 9x12 sketchbook journal

My response to the bird challenge took me quite by surprise and was very serendipitous. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to post this for the challenge because it's mixed media, but I decided that embracing the everyday is exactly what Everyday Matters is all about, so here you have it :) Actually, I'd been thinking about which bird I wanted to draw since the challenge was posted because I have a few favorites - but as it turns out a bird was selected for me! However, I do love birds and will most definitely do some full sketches in the future and will share those with everyone too, maybe even a step-by-step version as I've been wanting to do that for awhilenow.

Anyway, how this came about: we've been 'beaching' it here the last few days with temps hovering in the upper 90's and as we were packing up to leave today, I spotted this treasure. There it was, poking out of the sand along the shoreline, barely noticeable really with all the other bits of driftwood and such. Incredible was all I could think when I dug it out and rinsed it off! All it needed was a bit of carving at the neck & beak area and some defining for the tail feathers, but that's it. I wanted to 'stay in the moment' with this, so I quickly sketched out the background and perched it on the 'inky' branch. Because this won't fit in my journal, I'm going to collage this with other bird-related ephemera and put it in a shadow box.

Before I got Danny's books and joined the EDM group earlier this year, I never sketched daily or looked at things the way I do today. I probably would have brought something like this home and plopped it into a glass jar with other finds, never 'seeing' what it could be. Thanks again Danny for reminding us to take the time to stop and really look at everything around us. Thanks also to all the EDMers who share their wonderful responses to these challenges - you are all an inspiration.