Fly

Once again I opened my journal to the next pages that I coated with the left over paint from the day before.

As I looked at the pages, I saw three birds.  The colors were dingy and muddy so I decided to add some cerulean blue and yellow green artist acrylic to punch it up a bit.

 I took out my black water soluble crayon and began to sketch in the outline of the birds.  I liked using the pastel on top of the acrylic.  Adding water to the crayon made it easy to wipe out and re-draw some of the lines until they were the way I wanted them.

After the rough sketch was competed, I added black artist acrylic to further define the shadows and consequently that added areas of highlight.  I added additional highlights with white artist acrylic and I added black lines to represent branches and add interest to the background. 

I added lyrics from the song, "Blackbird", and word "Fly" to complete my spread.

I thought about what birds represent to me.  I thought about Maya Angelou's, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", and I thought about that song made popular by the Beatles, "Blackbird".  I thought about soaring as high as the clouds and I thought about freedom.  I thought about this gift I have of being what we label "artist", and I was grateful that I have the freedom to express myself through journaling and what I love to call "Happy Creating!".