Adri's Palette

Now that I had a bit of time over the weekend I decided to go back to my birdhouse project. OK, it was more like I had to return to it. The dilemma of how to finish it was driving me mad! Whenever I had a spare moment during the day, or woke up in the middle of the night all I could think about was how to make those planks on the walls of the house.

My first instinct was to paint a think line with acrylic paint and then lightly wash the bottom edge. I realized this would not work. Trying it out I noticed it did not have the dimension in color or texture that I was looking for. That was the moment that I tried something totally different: approached it with the same technique, but in a different medium. I used watercolor pencils instead of the paint.

The use of different colors, hues at the same time helped me achieve the depth I was looking for. Since it was not a color that was blended it had dimension. Also, since the pencil applies dry I was not pushed to finish it as quickly as possible. I could take my time to get the  shading just right. It ended up looking beaten and ragged as a house would after years of tough weather conditions.

For the chimney I sponged the surface with a color that matched our model home’s. After it dried I painted in the mortar with an off-white color blend.

Humor is very important to me. For this very same reason I am head over hills in love with this little mini birdhouse! I mean, could it be any funnier (and weirder at the same time) that there is this little house within a house concept? I first thought I’d make a miniature bird to live in it. I think that would have been a tiny it too much. What do you think?

And here is the end result:  our new fall ornament. It is going to be our colorful Norwegian welcome whenever we come home. And so nice to return to it!