Making a bird coloring book

[The Bird Nuts]

@GracesWarbler I colored my first page!  The book is wonderful and the paper is definitely adequate for the average coloring book user.  It took erasing and several layers of colored pencil just fine.  I approve!

[Quiscalus quiscula]

1 hour ago, The Bird Nuts said:

@GracesWarbler I colored my first page!  The book is wonderful and the paper is definitely adequate for the average coloring book user.  It took erasing and several layers of colored pencil just fine.  I approve!

That looks amazing!

[The Bird Nuts]

Just now, Quiscalus quiscula said:

That looks amazing!

Thank you!

[GracesWarbler]

3 hours ago, The Bird Nuts said:

@GracesWarbler I colored my first page!  The book is wonderful and the paper is definitely adequate for the average coloring book user.  It took erasing and several layers of colored pencil just fine.  I approve!

That's fantastic!  Thanks for giving my coloring book a go.  It's fun to see other people use it. What sort of colored pencils do you use? Have any recommendations?  Also, have you contributed to any neat projects recently (e.g., bird books)?

Also, I think it would be fun to do some sort of coloring event, for example at my local library. I'm still trying to figure out what it would look like, though. Should I give a talk about local birds? Tell them something about nature? Any ideas?

[The Bird Nuts]

21 minutes ago, GracesWarbler said:

That's fantastic!  Thanks for giving my coloring book a go.  It's fun to see other people use it. What sort of colored pencils do you use? Have any recommendations?  Also, have you contributed to any neat projects recently (e.g., bird books)?

Also, I think it would be fun to do some sort of coloring event, for example at my local library. I'm still trying to figure out what it would look like, though. Should I give a talk about local birds? Tell them something about nature? Any ideas?

Thank you!  I use Prismacolors but I can't recommend them due to their poor lightfastness ratings and breakability.  I bought them a long time ago so I've been using them up.  I've heard good things about Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d'Ache Luminance, but, boy, are they expensive!

No projects like that lately (besides one of my photos getting in an online magazine article this spring).  I offered to do something for the local Audubon chapter (kiosk illustrations, etc.), but they don't have anything for me to do yet.

I think a coloring event would be cool.  Kids (and adults) can learn about the bird they are coloring and maybe write what they think is cool about the particular species.  I recently taught a class to kids about bird identification and drawing.  The kids really enjoyed the flash cards I got.  I had them match birds in the same family and read the facts on the back for a guessing game.

Edited October 29, 2022 by The Bird Nuts

[GracesWarbler]

On 10/28/2022 at 6:37 PM, The Bird Nuts said:

Thank you!  I use Prismacolors but I can't recommend them due to their poor lightfastness ratings and breakability.  I bought them a long time ago so I've been using them up.  I've heard good things about Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d'Ache Luminance, but, boy, are they expensive!

No projects like that lately (besides one of my photos getting in an online magazine article this spring).  I offered to do something for the local Audubon chapter (kiosk illustrations, etc.), but they don't have anything for me to do yet.

I think a coloring event would be cool.  Kids (and adults) can learn about the bird they are coloring and maybe write what they think is cool about the particular species.  I recently taught a class to kids about bird identification and drawing.  The kids really enjoyed the flash cards I got.  I had them match birds in the same family and read the facts on the back for a guessing game.

Cool!  How did the class go?  Besides the flash cards, what did the kids seem interested in?  Any tips?

[The Bird Nuts]

9 hours ago, GracesWarbler said:

Cool!  How did the class go?  Besides the flash cards, what did the kids seem interested in?  Any tips?

Can't say it went well.  It was VERY difficult to get the kids to be quiet, stay still, and listen.  The only time they really paid attention was when they were playing with the flash cards.  I think if their parents were there it would have been much, MUCH better.

[GracesWarbler]

14 hours ago, The Bird Nuts said:

Can't say it went well.  It was VERY difficult to get the kids to be quiet, stay still, and listen.  The only time they really paid attention was when they were playing with the flash cards.  I think if their parents were there it would have been much, MUCH better.

Hmm, kids can be easily distracted. Maybe slightly older kids would pay more attention.

By the way, can I share your Steller's Jay on social media? I can link to your art website alongside it.

[The Bird Nuts]

17 hours ago, GracesWarbler said:

By the way, can I share your Steller's Jay on social media? I can link to your art website alongside it.

Of course!

[SirVive]

Guess what showed up in my mailbox a couple of days ago 😎   First time I ever received mail officially addressed to 'Birder' - quite the important sounding title 😄

The book looks great!  Haven't had a chance to color but I flipped through it. I know what I'm taking to the MO cousins at the end of the year. 🎁

[GracesWarbler]

23 hours ago, SirVive said:

Guess what showed up in my mailbox a couple of days ago 😎   First time I ever received mail officially addressed to 'Birder' - quite the important sounding title 😄

The book looks great!  Haven't had a chance to color but I flipped through it. I know what I'm taking to the MO cousins at the end of the year. 🎁

Haha, perhaps I should have addressed it to Sir Vive of Birding.

I hope you and your cousins enjoy the books!

[GracesWarbler]

A couple of the drawings from my coloring book, which I colored digitally.  Happy Thanksgiving folks!