The Majestic KingFisher on Clarity Birdwatch – Day 1
Hi there.
Thanks for joining me today.
I have had an idea this week…
Having been so very excited to see a real live kingfisher in the wild for the very first time on Saturday, I thought it would be nice to have our own Birdwatch week here in Blogland.
Every day this week, I will feature one of our beautiful
Clarity Birds.
It may be a Groovi plate, it may be a stamp, it may be a stencil.
But one thing’s for sure – IT IS A CLARITY DESIGN!
Starting with our wonderful little kingfisher,
illustrated by Mel.
She popped into the office this morning.
Oh my oh my. Wait till you see what she has drawn for us.
Blimming beautiful.
Anyway. The little kingfisher,
stamped on Northern Lights PARCHMENT, on the front.
I was amazed how tiny he actually is in real life!
Thought he would be much bigger.
Stamp some leaves around the branch, closing the ends.
Black Archival is the best ink pad on parchment.
Add the branch which comes in the set too,
plus a few more leaves.
Flip to the back and use a pencil eraser
to remove colour behind the kingfisher and the leaves.
Erase a moon too, using the moons mask to help establish the shape.
Working from behind, work on a soft surface.
I’m with the guys who like the Excellent Pink Pergamano mat.
It really is very forgiving, isn’t it.
Start bringing out some white in the bird with a shader or No. 3 tool, and highlights using the stylus gently.
See?
Now onto a hard mat and colour in from behind using the
Perga Colours. Really vibrant.
And perfect Kingfisher colours.
Blend yellow over the orange to brighten it even more.
Time to cut back the picture and mount on white card.
You will be happy to hear that the glue runner doesn’t show at all behind the coloured Designer parchment.
YAY!!!
Now let’s mount it on its Northern Lights sister PAPER,
not parchment.
Find the spot where the parchment sits exactly right on the paper.
See it here? So the paper becomes an extension.
I then spray-mounted the 8″ x 8″ Designer Paper
to an 8″ x 8″ folded white card.
Done. Cuppa tea!
So, to celebrate Mel’s beautiful, unique and original artwork,
let’s have a bloggy birdy sale every day.
In fact, the August Stamp of the month is a superb Woodpecker with a stencil! Check him out too….
 |
| Great quality. Great designs. Great prices. Go see…. I will load the birds on offer into the Offers section on our website each day. Love & Hugs, |
32 thoughts on “The Majestic KingFisher on Clarity Birdwatch – Day 1”
What beautiful artwork – thank you. I await with anticipation your next instalment😀
Ticket ready for ally pally can't wait ❌
ooh will you use the magpie stencils – never did master them and you did them so well on TV:)
Kim
Lovely creation with the kingfisher. Have the lovely woodpecker and the stencil. Do you remember a few month ago you asked us to use the stencil differently? And we end up having great idea. Thanks for giving us birds offer.
Laurence xx
This is beautiful – thank you for sharing xx We were at a campsite, forgotten how many years ago now, but our son was quite young and had his first pup tent. We camped at Wookey Hole and was beside the river. A pair of kingfishers regularly darted up and down past our caravan. It is a thrill to see!
Love the Clarity bird stamps, used the flamingos this year for my sisters birthday card. Loving the art work today, only one problem in recreating it though…it would mean using a bit of my beautiful parchment! Don't think I'm past the stroking stage yet. 😁😁😁 XX
That's the dilemma most definitely xx
Thank you for the demo Barbara. The Kingfisher is a favourite of mine. I was lucky enough a few years ago to see one up close when it landed on the guardrail of our boat when we were on the River Fal. Yes it is surprisingly small but as the saying goes 'good things come in small packages'. Looking forward to see what you have in store for us for the rest of the week. xx
Evening bloggy friends, happy Monday to you all. Think Autumn has arrived but luckily I've managed to avoid most of the showers. Hope everyone is well. Xx
Hi Donna,
We haven't had rain -yet- but very windy and chilly. I'm with you that Autumn has arrived big style. Hope school hasn't been too bad so far. Love and hugs to you and Phoebe, love Alison xxxx
Hi Donna heavy showers here today after the sunshine lured us into a false sense of security! Love your comment about still stroking the parchment 😀Xxx
School is going well, getting back in the swing of things. Working with the same teacher as last year so that helps. Diane have you got the parchment pads? They are soooooo good! I want to make lanterns with them as they look stunning with light behind them. Xx
Hi Barb,
This has turned out fabulously – really love this stamp set. Like the way you've matched up the parchment with the paper, looks really cool. Thanks for the bird sale – hopefully I've got them all! My duets arrived today and I love them – so clever! Love and hugs Alison xxx
Hi everyone,
Hope you are all ok. Weather has turned really quite chilly and supposed to be awful tomorrow. I do feel guilty talking about the weather with what is happening in Florida and the Caribbean. Well I've only got 1/2 stone to go!! Yeah! Hopefully, that won't take too long. Love and hugs to you all, Alison xxxx
Hi Alison wow haven't you done well. Keep it up xxx
Well done Alison that tiny 7lbs will go in no time at all, especially now its getting colder! Xx
That's excellent. I hope I recognise you at leyburn xx
Well done Ali. Looking forward to a catch up at Layburn. This year Sandra and I are bringing a couple of extra people with us.
Wow. Brilliant idea. Loving the new papers and parchment ❤️
Beautiful artwork to match a beautiful bird!
You have such a good eye to see landscapes in the parchment and papers Barbara. Just fab!
Have a great evening.
Love and hugs Xxxx
Hi Barbara
This parchment is so beautiful isn't it, the kingfisher sits on it perfectly. It's interesting the way you can take the colour out of the parchment and add additional layers of colour. It looks beautiful on the matching papers. Thank you for the sale offers, I'm looking forward to seeing which of the beautiful bird stamps/ stencils/groovi you will use next.
Take care
Love Diane xxx
Stunning creation Barbara. Love love love this – such beautiful colours. Xx
Beautiful. Love how the parchment and paper overlay in that way. How special that you got to see a kingfisher in real life too x
Absolutely stunning! xxx
I have this stamp and have used it a lot. It always looks good when coloured. I used to ride my horse past a small brook and regularly saw a kingfisher fly alongside as it wasn't scared of the horse xx
Beautiful xx
Beautiful! And that designer paper certainly seems made for this – now that you've created this scene, I can so clearly see the river running through it!
I do love bird stamps and this Kingfisher is a stunner Barbara and placing it on the parchment with the white work and then the pretty colouring makes this perfect. x
Great step by step…just love the gorgeous parchment and papers! Xx
Hello Barb, what a fabulous step by step and a really beautiful result. One of my favourite stamps, and you have really brought it to life. Take care all. Bx
What a great result, I have bought the parchment paper but not used it yet, it's so pretty
Fabulous kingfisher design. I too was really surprised the first time I saw a real kingfisher because most pictures show them sitting on a branch with fish in beak and they do appear to be large. They are certainly beautiful little birds.
I don't think anything prepares you for that flash of the gorgeous blue. I saw mY first kingfisher about 20 years ago and have been straining my eyes along the river banks ever since. I have subsequently seen two more, one on a branch enjoying a little bit of sunshine on a cold winter day and then a flash along the river only a few days ago. I understand you need to be up early to see them so I must count myself very lucky indeed as I 'm not an early riser.