Portrait of "Pepper"

The only successful portrait sketch today...
This is our Easter Egger,  "Pepper."

Chicken Scratch Portraits!

Portraits are difficult, especially when you're drawing children or animals. The fear of not getting a likeness can make even the best artists, "chicken."

Yet, I figure there's no reason to be chicken of doing a portrait of a chicken-- after all, it takes one to know one, and so a chicken oughta know best how to draw a chicken!

Here are portraits of two of our "ladies" -- Ivy the Blue Ameraucana, and Esmeralda ("Ezzy" for short) a Black Silkie on loan to us from friends of ours (we're letting Oreo and Ezzy become parents).

Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a busy month, and I've not been drawing the chickens much lately.

But today I got to draw just a bit, and was able to dash off a few scratches:

Duck Pond Squatters!

Lately I've been digging a small pond for my ducks, and a couple weeks ago it rained enough to fill the thing up... and recently I've noticed a lot of little squiggly critters swimming about in the water (I suspect it's a by-product of the crazy croaking parties we've heard out there at night). Tadpoles!

They are cute little things, and already we are seeing some of them with legs.

This is great, since I'm currently working on an art project involving tadpoles and frogs. So these little guys will be the models for my reference material! Serendipity. Providence!

Today's Scratch Doodles

Not much today-- just a few doodles while the chickens were ranging around (today they were especially troublesome models!):

The good thing about it was that I had to totally simplify the drawings, seeing them in their totally basic expressions. So even though the sketches are very simple, they have a certain expressive life to them:

Color Header!

Here's the new, fantabulous color edition of the Chicken Scratch blog header...

Chicken Dance! Oreo the Matador...

Oreo is coming on a bit too strong with his new love interest, a Silkie hen named Esmerelda. He can't help but show her his love dance, and unfortunately, he can't control his neediness, which makes his date run away!
We hope he can settle down a bit and quit scaring her away, so they can have some cute little Blue Silkie chicks...

Portrait of "Pepper" in full color

This Chicken Scratch is unlike the others, as it is not from life. So, it's not a true Scratch.
However, I am beginning a regular feature on the blog, wherein I paint a color sketch of one of the chickens here at Painted Acres. This is to highlight them, and also the notion that I paint chicken portraits in any media, which are available for commission any time (just email me at kris@krisbattles.com for details).
Portrait of "Pepper," sunbathing (mixed media, mainly acrylic, on illustration board):

Scratchin' and a Preenin'

Drawing Silkie chickens almost never gets tiring, because of the incredible variation in their tone and texture, which makes for interesting and challenging rendering, especially when drawing from life.

Drawing Runner Ducks, on the other hand, also never gets tiring, but for entirely different reasons. They're always moving, and their bills and necks provide difficult shapes to draw (especially when they're moving!).

Foghorn Leghorn Rant!

Some of the best colorful country colloquialisms of America's Rooster, Foghorn Leghorn.

Yesterday's and Today's-- a Portrait of Oreo, Sketches of the Ladies, and Buddy

Once again, a portrait of our "Blue" Silkie, Oreo:

Quick Contour Doodles of "the Ladies" (as we call our large hens):

 Today's Scratch: Portrait of Buddy, face and tail, and a quick sketch of Cream, one of his wives:

Materials Note: today I bought a KOH-I-NOOR Hardtmuth "Toison D'Or" 7B pencil, and I think it was easier to do a little shading with.

Scratch of the Day

Fairy House, SOLD!

One the fairy market for only a day, the cute little mansion sold!
This morning, our daughter found that the yard sign was gone, and in its place was a sprinkling of fairy dust! At the house itself, more fairy dust adorned the place, and a conspicuous "SOLD" sign was posted on the fence for sale sign. WOW! They loved the place so much, they had to move right in.

 Fairy dust sparkling on the leaves of grass where the sign once stood.

 More fairy dust, and a "SOLD" sign, too! 

Duck doodles...

I didn't have a lot of time on this Fathers Day to sketch any of the critters in detail, but I managed to spend a few minutes following the ducks around (they rarely stand still for any length of time to allow one to finish a drawing!). It's all good practice, however, even if there's no refined product for the day. In time, benefits in line and expression will be reaped...

And speaking of ducks:

Fairy House!

Well, we must have put some good improvements into our back yard, because we suddenly noticed a fairy house in the back, near the fence.
Actually, it was the latest creation of Kate, our youngest (nearing 8). She made the house with almost no supervision (super genius)!

This place not only has location, it has a new fence, a stone walk way, a nice deck on the roof, and a cute little mossy hill.

(I wonder, if more fairies move in and build houses, they'll suddenly make a fairy HOA?)...

*UPDATE, WITH "FOR SALE" SIGN!*
Kate just added two signs, letting all in the fairy world know that there's a great new house for sale in a great neighborhood... (the one on the fence reads, "for sale mansion.")

& here's a sign a few yards away, pointing "down the street" to the fairy house:

NomNomNomNom.... Strawberries!

We brought our Silkie hens, Holly and Stella, in from the rain last night, and while they sat to dry, we fed them some juicy strawberries. Boy, did they like them!

Buddy (and Stella), A Study

Followed Buddy the Silkie rooster around the yard today, getting some quick drawings done of him.

I also managed to get a quick drawing of Stella done, minutes before a downpour made us scramble to get the chickens back in!

Color Scratch!

Today's Scratches are a bit of an attempt to do color-- at least a color outline-- using colored pencils.

I saw our Rhode Island Red, "Scarlet", dust bathing, looking like a big ball of feathers, so I did a quick line drawing and added a little tone to her:

Our Silkie hen, "Holly" was next, and she was a bit more difficult. She is a very light-toned Buff Silkie, and so it's hard to get the color right. I used three different pencils on her outlines...

Peeps Has Got His Crow!

Mr. Peeps crowed for the first time the other day, and yesterday, I thought I'd try to capture his earnest if not fully realized attempt at a crow. Like a teenage boy, his voice is changing!

Videos-- Penny for your Dreams, and Mr. Peeps Comes of Age

Penny, our Delaware pullet, was sun bathing today, with her neck feathers all poofed out, and I had to get a video of it:

Then, I was watching the ducks and chickens free range,minding my own business when, to my left, a ruckus was occurring only inches away.
When I looked to see what the fuss was about, I saw Peeps and Buddy squaring off:

Buddy was chased off, Peeps turned around and I turned my camera off. IMMEDIATELY after that, I had to turn it back on again, because Oreo came up and it was on again, like a gang scene out of a 50s musical.
Oreo and Peeps face off, but with comic results:

Peeps, our cockerel Delaware shown in the videos, has been coming of age lately.
He crowed for the first time three days ago, and his feathers are really starting to mature. I can imagine that in a few short weeks, he'll be the proverbial cock of the walk...