How to Clean + Maintain Your Art Studio

Today we are getting down to the nitty gritty of cleaning, organizing, and maintaining your art studio because it is important to take care of the spaces we love and that nurture our creative spirits.

A tidy and maintained studio is a productive studio so I hope you feel so inspired to refresh your space soon!

Grab a Tube Wringer here: https://bit.ly/3ipAm4w

If you use my special link it helps to support my channel at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

How to Clean + Restore Paint Brushes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwdYu1chYGE

How to Get the Most Out of Your Paint Tubes (a super old vid so don't judge too harshly - ha!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il1RHs9QL18

8.9.2020

Skull Trio Painting Complete

After the last bit of glue dried on the frames last night and I flipped this skull trio over this morning I was really struck by how I could actually see a bit of progress and improvement just between these three pieces.

I feel like in the first painting I got my form down, then in the second painting I was getting a little bit more confident with the colors, and by the third painting I had really found a lovely illuminating glow within the bone.

Okaaayy this is the last time you’ll see these skulls in their 2D format but if you’d like to get sneak peeks at all the creepy-crawleys that will be ensconced in resin with these skulls, make sure you’re checking in on my Stories on Instagram here @caleighbirdart.

8.6.2020

How to Clean + Restore Old Paint Brushes

Today I am going to share with you a super easy way to clean and restore your old oil paint brushes - yep even the ones with dried paint in them - using common household products.

One of the best ways to be eco-friendly while also being nice to your wallet is to rejuvenate and condition your old paint brushes rather than buying new ones, so grab some dish soap, rubbing alcohol, and olive oil and let's get this party started!

8.2.2020

Dragon Fruit Blooming

How humbling to stare into the mouth of a Dragon (fruit flower)!! Such a mysterious and mighty flower that one only gets to view on rare occasions, partly due to the fact that each blossom only opens for a few hours, and those few hours are always at night.

A special nocturnal treat for sure! Just one of the many exciting and exotic fruits my stepdad has planted around the yard:)

We just got the first few fruits off the cactus… a real delight in my afternoon smoothie!

7.30.2020

How to Draw Hands Workshop

This highly detailed and extensive workshop features everything you need to know to draw refined and realistic hands. Together we will start off with basic palm and finger structure utilizing correct proportions, then move onto how tendons affect movement. Next we'll incorporate muscle, skin, and fingernails to round out our drawings and finally learn about shading to bring a real depth and realism to our works. 

You also have the option to get personal feedback through email from me three times over the course of this workshop for that extra boost in conquering this challenging subject matter. Woo Hoo!

Supplies:

White Conte Pencil: https://bit.ly/2DbnqQ5

2B Pencil: https://bit.ly/3jHhDml

4B Pencil: https://bit.ly/39woBGg

4B Woodless Pencil: https://bit.ly/32VNolv

9x12 White Sketchbook: https://bit.ly/39C3wdu

9x12 Toned Grey Sketchbook: https://bit.ly/3hDUrDH

Kneaded Eraser: https://bit.ly/2VC4qBB

Map Eraser: https://bit.ly/2wgzoop

Mono Zero Eraser: https://bit.ly/3885Fej

*Any supplies purchased through my special links helps to support my YouTube channel at no extra cost to you, so thank you!

To preview and access the remaining 10 videos of this 12 part series, hop over to Skillshare or snag the class here:

Skillshare

If you're new to Skillshare I have a special affiliate link that gives you your first two months for free! And that's not just to my classes, that to the 10's of thousands of classes available on the Premium plan. Enjoy lots 'o learnin! https://skl.sh/39snxCW

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7.26.2020

Upcoming 'Hand Drawing' Workshop

Whew I am working around the clock to get this multi-video workshop uploaded here on my website, on Skillshare, and on YouTube, which let me tell you with loading times and small hiccups along the way, that in no small feat!!

Stay tuned!!

7.23.2020

Studio Vlog :: Upcoming Workshops + Nest News

Aloha friends, it’s been a minute since I’ve shared a behind-the-scenes peek into the Nest so I figured this hot July afternoon was a perfect time to sit in the AC for a spell and spill the Birdie tea.

I’ve got two exciting tutorials coming out! One is a detailed workshop in how to draw hands (see this post from last week), and the other is about how to paint skulls in a very lifelike way (right here). I also share a few adventures I’ve been lucky enough to go outside for and my latest 3D painting.

Make sure to grab some new stickers here too!

And to check out my unbelievable Art Mentoring pandemic rates and to see if working with me will be the right fit, read up all about what I offer as a mentor and teacher here.

7.19.2020

Awesome Critter Finds!

Living by this lake lately has been a real gift for pre-dried critters to enclose in my artwork. The more that I stay in Florida the more I see just how much wildlife is around here!

I can’t wait to get to the resin layering of my skull trio paintings!! I’m definitely going to be having fun with all these creepy crawlers…..

7.16.2020

Where to Find Copyright Free Images

Okay my lovely patient viewer, I hope you learned a lot from last week’s ‘Copying vs Stealing and Being Inspired’ video, and now as promised I have five sources where you can get copyright free photos for your artwork. Yay!

Finding free good quality reference photos is not as hard as you would think if you know where to look and sometimes who to ask. It can be easy to fall in the habit of just finding images through google searches and using those for your paintings, but taking from other artists without permission will not get you or your artwork very far in this life so better to go ahead and source ethically.

Let me know in the comments if you can think of any other great reference photo sources!

Here are the ones I've found:

https://onairvideo.com/

https://vimeo.com/croquiscafe

https://www.nma.art/

https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/

https://www.pexels.com/

https://www.pixabay.com/

https://www.imagesource.com/

https://freephotos.cc/

7.12.2020

'Hand Workshop' Progress

I’m excited to share a little progress on probably the most detailed workshop I’ve created to date! This is an super thorough examinations of how the hand is structured, how tendons affect movement, how to draw details like wrinkles and fingernails, and then finally how to shade and render it.

I’ll have around a dozen step-by-step drawing examples of the entire process as well as lots of copyright free photographs that anyone can use for any project.

So make sure you stick around and stay tuned because I’m not sure when exactly this will be published, but I’m hoping in three weeks or less! I’ll have the first part on my YouTube channel and the rest will be available for download on my website or to experience on Skillshare.

Can’t wait to drop some real knowledge on you!

7.9.2020