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Lumpsucker Fish

| davinabehinjones

Inspired by a comment made by one of my friends, I decided to draw these adorable and bizarre fish — lumpsuckers. The first time I saw these little guys, I could not believe my eyes. They look exactly like vacantly staring pompoms. Just little fish lumps that stick to things with their sucker fins. I kept looking and looking for some clue that they were real and my husband (boyfriend at the time, on our second date) had to pull me away from the display tank so we could get out of the California Academy of Sciences before it closed.

I never did find convincing evidence that lumpsuckers are real and not just pompoms.

I drew this continuing my experiments with Crayola crayon fish drawings.

 

Lumpsuckers
Lumpsuckers, Crayola crayons.

Happy Ayyám-i-Há!

| davinabehinjones

Ayyám-i-Há is a Bahá’í holiday celebrating the intercalary days of the Bahá’í year (days that fall “outside” the calendar year of nineteen months of nineteen days). These four or five days are a special time for savoring God’s generosity by gift giving, helping the poor and sick, and really appreciating life.

 

I like to celebrate it by making art that brings smiles to people’s faces. And eating good food!

“Joy gives us wings!
In times of joy our strength is more vital,
our intellect keener, and our understanding
less clouded.
We seem better able to cope
with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness.”
~`Abdu’l-Bahá

 

This year I made a crayon drawing that I hope tickles you a little.

PuffSnails2_web
Looking at Snails, Crayola crayons

Puffer fish are always funny to me, especially when they focus in hard with their big eyes. Here this little guy is thinking about those snails … or maybe you!

 

Wishing everyone out there, whoever you may be, Bahá’í or not, religious or not, a fan of my work or not, a truly wonderful couple of days! Happy Ayyám-i-Há, world!

Mimic Octopus WIP

| davinabehinjones

Thaumoctopus mimicus, the mimic octopus, is deservedly famous for its ability to make itself appear like other species of marine animals such as a lion fish, a flatfish, a sea snake, a jellyfish, and more. In fact, the limit of its disguises is unknown.

Amazing abilities aside, however, it is also simply a ridiculously attractive cephalopod. The stripes of brown and white on the long undulating arms are mesmerizing. The horns on the tall alert eye stalks are more glamorous than any false eyelashes I’ve ever seen.

See for yourself: Live Footage of Mimic Octopus on YouTube

I’m working on capturing the loveliness of this amazing creature with needle felt over wire armature. Here are a few in progress photos.

Fish, Giraffe, Octopus and More

| davinabehinjones

I made these series of drawings as birthday gifts to my sisters and my good friend. They all appreciate out of the ordinary arty things, so I just drew what I felt like drawing. I made slight alterations in Photoshop to give them texture and color.

 

RabbitFish_web

Fish and Rabbit, mixed media

 

GiraffeSnails_web

Giraffe and Snails, mixed media

 

Eight_web

Eight, mixed media

Baby tapir

| davinabehinjones

I got another baby tapir commission. I LOVE making these little guys. They are so cute and each time I get to refine and distill the cuteness for overload…

 

 

This is the best one I’ve made yet! I’m very proud of not only the shape, proportion of leg to body and head size, but also the brown and black balance underlying the white spots and stripes. I mixed the brown roving (wool) with the black to get a nice dark brown and then really focused on getting the lighter brown on the cheeks.

 

There is a cost, however. Those dang spots really took forever! I thought my fingers would fall off! I had to redo one of the ears because the white spot on it was turning the black gray. It’s all about balance and finding the magic point at which the black is thick enough to sustain a white spot poking into it but thin enough to be a flexible little ear…

It’s a challenge. But one I delight in!

This little one now makes his home in Half Moon Bay, California with his lovely new owner.

Ravens and Orcas

| davinabehinjones

My beloved’s favorite family of animal is corvidae, which includes crows and ravens. They are phenomenally clever and also have a delightful sense of humor… Traits that my beloved possesses in abundance himself.

His intelligence, playfulness, and graceful strength always makes me think of another animal that I adore — the orca.

Ever since I met him in 2015, I could get lost in the windswept energy of the lively, free-spirited, force of nature that is Nick. I tried to capture a little of this feeling in my artwork and I ended up making this series of drawings for him as gifts each year.

 

This was the first one that I drew for him. I drew it in my sketchbook leading up to the first time we met in person (we corresponded through email for the first couple months of our courtship). He loved it and put it up in his bedroom.

RavenOrcadA
For Nick, pencil in sketchbook

The second one I drew for his birthday in 2016. We were now officially a couple and we were overjoyed! I used charcoal so I could get the darks very dark.

JoyofUs
The Joy of Us
 charcoal on pastel paper

This year I drew one entirely with crayons. I really wanted to create something bold and surprising!

OutoftheMist
Out of the Mist,
crayons on watercolor paper

Green happens to be his favorite color so I added hints of green here and there, but it’s a fun change to make pieces almost entirely in gray scale. I plan to continue adding more in this series in the years to come.

Horse Ornament

| davinabehinjones

One day, I realized that I had never made a horse. And then I remembered that my mother-in-law’s favorite animal is a horse. So for Christmas last year, I needle felted her a little horse ornament. It has a loop of wire at the withers so it can hang on the Christmas tree.

 

It was a lot of fun making this little guy. I researched a lot of other needle felters’ work to get inspiration.

 

Here’s one that I love:

66d3565a5928711b5fe90132f25ed74e
By BossysFeltworks on Etsy

And this one is just so fabulous!

il_fullxfull.667727278_4k4w
Horse mobile by BondurantMountArt on Etsy

 

Seeing these lovely horses, each with their own unique personalities, really gets my creative juices going! I’ll definitely make more felted horses over the coming years.

 

What other artists’ work has inspired you in your life? Let me know in the comments.

Bats and spiders and books

| davinabehinjones

It’s finally October and that means: Halloween! It’s my favorite holiday. The eeriness, the fall colors, that chill in the wind, the suspenseful feeling of something about to happen, the candy… I love it!

One of my favorite things to do to celebrate Halloween is make a bookmark with a spooky theme. Reading scary stories in the fall evenings, all wrapped up in a cozy blanket, is one of the best things! And matching a bookmark to the mood is fiendishly fun!

One year I made one with bats!

You can purchase a download of it here: Halloween Bat Bookmark on etsy by Familiar Oddlings

I made the artwork by using paper collage and acrylic paints. I really enjoyed getting the moon to glow behind the swarm of bats.

 

This year I wanted to do something with spiders and autumn leaves, and this is what came out:

Purchase a download of this one here: Halloween Spider in the Leaves bookmark on etsy by Familiar Oddlings

Crayola crayons again. They are wonderful! The brightness of the colors are fantastic! I get a thrill from the challenge of getting these to blend and fade as smoothly as I can. I wanted the vibrant fall leaves to pop forward from a subtle gray leaves/cobwebby background, all within which the glorious spider suspends on her thread!

 

I hope you all enjoy these and have a spooky Halloween!

Peaches Portrait

| davinabehinjones

I made an oil pastel portrait of my mother-in-law’s cat, Peaches, for her birthday back before I was married to her son. I knew the cat was very near and dear to her heart and although the cat had passed over the rainbow bridge many years ago and I didn’t have the blessing of meeting her, my work gave me a special closeness to her. Looking into those majestic eyes, pouring over the photo references my husband — then boyfriend — smuggled to me, I felt like I had spent considerable time in her watchful presence.

My mother-in-law loves the portrait and hung it in her living room where Peaches can gaze down on everything, like a queen surveying her domain.

Pink carnations are my mother-in-law’s favorite flower.

PeachesPortrait
Peaches oil pastel, 24 in. x 18 in. 2016

I used Sennelier oil pastels for this piece. They are a joy to work with! They glide on so smoothly and blend by the simple act of drawing a stroke on top of another. It’s almost like using oil paints, my favorite medium for two dimensional work. The only difficulty I have with them is getting the end of the stick sharp enough for getting those tiny lines for the fur and whiskers.

 

PeachesPortrait_Detail
Peaches – detail