• Animal Oddity – Cardinal Duality

    Animal Oddity – Cardinal Duality

    I am always on the look out for the newest biological discovery. I love cryptozoology and I find it fascinating when scientists discover things about animals and nature that seemed improbable or maybe even impossible. The weird, the strange, the oddities of nature. Long story short, I came across an article that inspired my latest piece.

    The article was explaining the rare occurence of a hermaphrodite cardinal. Half of the bird is female and the other half is male. When this occurs it is called a bilateral gynandromorph. Gynandromorph comes from the greek words “gyne” (female), “andro” (male) and “morph” (form or shape). There are several species known to have hermaphrodites such as reptiles, crustaceans, and even butterflies! Scientists believe that all birds are capable of producing gynandromorph offspring but it has only been noticed in birds that vary in color between males and females, such as the cardinal.

    Mostly cardinals have been spotted perfectly split down the middle with a vibrant red on one side and a calm yellow on the other. When I saw the image of one, taken by a Pennsylvania couple at their backyard feeder, I was amazed by the beauty of it’s plumage. I immediately added this animal oddity to my list and couldn’t wait to get started!

    I have always wanted to create a piece based on duality. It was interesting to create two sides that are similar to each other but at the same time exact opposites. The female side is done with circles where as the male side I used a square pattern. The colors are also opposing yet the shadowing and vibrance is the same.

    I’m very happy with how the cardinal turned out. I never intended to create as many bird drawings as I have, it just kind of happened. I just love feathers and their patterns and colors! I am naturally drawn to birds so therefore they are naturally drawn by me! See what I did there! 😉 I used Arteza water color pencils and Prismacolor art markers along with a micron pen to get the thin black lines. I can only hope that maybe one day I will see one of these beauty’s with my own two eyes!

    Have you ever seen a hermaphrodite cardinal or maybe another species in the wild? The butterflies would be really cool to come across too! Share your story in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by this week! Check back soon as I will discuss the symbolism of having cardinal as a totem!

    Stay vibrant, free spirits!

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    I have “Cardinal Duality” prints and other cool stuff available in my shop!

    Check them out here!

  • It’s a Digital Age!

    I’ve been throwing around the idea of trying my hand at some digital art. I’ve never really dabbled with it much more than when I was in high school. That was fifteen years ago so a lot has changed in the technological department.Hard as it is to believe, I had never drawn on a device with a stylus and I wanted to try it. I’ve also been wanting to start creating some mandalas so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to tackle both!

    With each one, I do a little better and learn something new about the drawing app I am using. I settled for Autodesk Sketchbook until my art can pay for Adobe Illustrator, which would be my preferred program. I just finished the mandala picture below and have added it to my online shop! I call it “Bluedana” and I had a lot of fun creating it!

    I’m learning so much, rapidly. I can’t wait to see where my work will be in even a few weeks! Digital art is so much fun I know I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. I use to swear against it for the longest time. That was before I knew what I could do with it! I use to think it was “cheating” but it really isn’t. It just streamlines the entire process. This makes everything so much faster so you can get even more art done. Plus, you aren’t using any materials so you don’t have to dish out money for supplies. As long as you have a good device and a decent stylus, you’re all set! By the way, I drew all of these from my phone. I found an app that works for my laptop and my phone so I can draw no matter where I am!

    I hope you enjoyed my work. There is a lot more where that came from. What are your thoughts on digital art and illustration? Leave your story in the comments below! Thanks for stopping by this week.

    Happy Autumn, free spirits!

    “You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to.” –C.S. Lewis

  • W.I.P. Slumbering Sloth

    W.I.P. Slumbering Sloth

    I’m starting my next piece and I’m giving in to this sloth obsession that has been going on. It seems like every year their is a strange animal that people go “ga-ga” over! This year is the sloth, I guess. Perhaps it’s one of those “you’re so ugly, you’re cute” kind of thing? Or is it their slow, calm and chill attitude? Whatever it may be, I’ve decided to try my hand at a sloth.

    This is my rough sketch. I don’t think sloths really sleep like this but I wanted to play off of their lazy-like appearance. I’ve been really tired lately between work, family, summer activities and staying up later than I probably should. When I look at this, I can just imagine taking a nap in the trees with a nice, cool breeze. That would be the life, am I right? I think it’s safe to say we have all been there.

    I have some of the ink done. This piece has a lot of patterns in it naturally so incorporating them will be fun! I also can’t wait to start the color. I don’t typically incorporate backgrounds for my totem pieces but this one definitely called for it. The leaves will be neat to create and green is one of my favorite colors to work with.

    I hope you enjoyed the work in progress of my Sloth Totem. Check back soon to see the finished piece! What do you think about sloths? Cute and chill? Or Ugly and Freaky? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think?

    Pleasant Dreams, Free Spirits!

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    ~Totem Animal art by Free Spirit Meg~

    Find your own totem animal!

    Prints and Products Available @ Redbubble!

  • Flamingo Totem Drawing

    My Flamingo Totem is complete! It seemed like it took forever. Landscaping season started back up for me while I was half way finished with it. I can’t dedicate as much time in the day to drawing as I could over the winter. It really made the flamingo drag on but I forced myself to finish it and I’m glad I did. I am really happy with the outcome.

    I actually have two versions of the flamingo. The first version, pictured above, was my initial idea of just doing the body so I had plenty of room to create the patterns and tangles within the feathers. Feathers are a lot of fun to create using Zentangle. While I was working on the body, I realized, aside from their color, one of the flamingos most distinctive features are their long legs. I thought it would be neat to incorporate the legs into the drawing making one big project. I used three sheets of my drawing paper to create one huge piece of the flamingo with it’s legs. I scanned the three images to my computer and pieced them together creating this long legged beauty!

    I am really happy with how it looks as a full image. My only complaint is my scanner. Unfortunately, it couldn’t capture the really HOT pink color I was using so some of the areas are more dull compared to the original. Without comparing it though, the scanned image still looks pretty sweet!

    I have both of these versions available in my shop at Redbubble. Click the links below to check out apparel, home décor, stationary and more!

    Flamingo Totem (Body Only)

    Flamingo Totem (with Long Legs)

    You can also check out two patterns that I created from these pieces. The pretty blue background compliments the pink nicely. You can find these in my shop here and here.

    Which design or drawing is your favorite? Leave a comment below! Thanks for stopping by today! I have quite a few ideas for my next couple projects so check back often for new work. I hope you are enjoying some nice weather!

    Stay flashy, free spirits!

  • Animal Patterns

    I’ve been having some fun in photoshop lately. I like to make patterns and come up with cool designs using my traditional drawings. It opens a whole new world of creativity! Here are some of my patterns I’ve created so far.

    It’s really cool watching them unfold and seeing what comes from the original drawing. They also look awesome on my products @Redbubble. I can’t wait to see what other designs I can come up with! I am currently working on horse for my next piece! I’m really excited to share it! Check back later this week to see my work in progress post.

    Which pattern did you like best? Anything you hope to see in the future? Leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you! Thanks for stopping by!

    Stay edgy, free spirits!