Full Circle with Baby Bear Counts One: Part 4

Bears are great climbers.

Look at those claws!

Two cubs were orphaned when their mother was killed by a truck. They were  brought to the office of Oregon’s State Wildlife Veterinarian, Dr. Colin Gillin, where I was able to videotape them.

Bears climb trees to escape danger and to find food.

My cub climbed the tree to confront two squirrels

My 1st sketch didn’t have him in the tree  so I revised to show him climbing.

But the perspective seemed weird, for both the bear and the squirrels, so I revised again.

And then again, to show the cub’s whole body.

Finally I was able to carve the block…

Print it and paint it.

Related articles

• Full Circle with Baby Bear Counts One: Part 3 (ashleywolff.wordpress.com)
• Full Circle with Baby Bear Counts One: Part 1 (ashleywolff.wordpress.com)
• Full Circle with Baby Bear Counts One: Part 2 (ashleywolff.wordpress.com)

DIY Clock Face Transformation

Every summer, during the Hollins University Summer Graduate session there is a one day, student run conference called the Francelia Butler Conference. One of the ways they raise operating funds is by holding a silent auction.

This year I picked up this clock at a very good price and decided to “pimp” it for my lake cabin in Vermont. I liked the dark blue rim but the flag image was just not enough for me.

Normally, when I make little artworks for the cabin I work in watercolor

But for the clock I used collage. I added all the things I love about living by a lake for part of the year.

 

 

Honestly, does it need any numbers?

 

Children and animals

I can never decide.

Do I love drawing children best?

Or do I love animals?

This summer in Lowesville, Virginia I had the chance to draw both.

The house and barns, as seen from the river road out front. 

The family’s  youngest child, drawing monsters. Luckily he was not using me as his model!

But he was a wonderfully calm and focused model for me.

I stepped away and a kitten entered the picture

So I drew her, and her sister.

Until they left and were captured by the middle child

Luckily, she had some origami to fold, so she modeled for me too.

 

 

Full Circle with Baby Bear Counts One: Part 3

There is not a tree I hate.

There are quite a few I am neutral about and many I really admire and look up to.

There are a handful I love.

I love oaks.

I grew up with the deciduous Eastern white and red oaks and came to love Yosemite’s Black Oaks, and California Live Oaks too.

But my favorite oak, a very old oak, is growing in a park with other oaks in Corvallis, Oregon. It is my model for the tree in this spread.

Her branches reached out horizontally, twisting and swathed in mosses and lichen.She first appeared in Baby Bear Sees Blue, when the cub sees green.Now she is back in Baby Bear counts one, full of ripe acorns that are filling the coffers of two rambunctious squirrels.I started my thinking with a close up view.

Then pulled the focus out and assumed a lower point of view.

Then I decided to pull out completely to show the ground beneath them AND the spreading oak.

If you look carefully you’ll see sign of a retreating squirrel.

At Julie Anna’s House

Julie Anna is my Grand Niece.

She is two.

.

She is going to be a big sister.

Her baby sister is due around the New Year, and Julie Anna is moving into a new room between now and then.

Her new room is pretty plain at the moment.

The walls are blank and boring, so I painted a mural for Julie Anna.

I called it Julie Anna’s House.

Step one: To get my client onboard, I let her handle my tools.

Step two: Get some paint on the wall. Use sheets to keep the rest of the wall reasonably clean.

Step Three: Add loads of little details for your client to stare at as she goes to sleep at night, or is failing to take her nap.

Step four: Show your client the finished mural and see if she approves.

Step five: Give her a hug and wish her luck as a big sister. It is a wonderful thing to be.

Update: Julie Anna’s Daddy installed chair Rail and painted. Her Mommy Karen painted an old desk in purple with a white overcoat and distressed it. Her room is really coming together.

Further update: Baby sister Karla Whitney Wurzinger was born on 12/30/13 and already has found a good place to be, on big sister Julie Anna’s lap.

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