Birds are cool Posted May 31 Share Posted May 31 12 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: A new page for the coloring book: some birds in flight! There's a Great Blue Heron, a White-faced Ibis, and a Snowy Egret. I've posted two compositions below. Any preference between them? In the first image, is it clear what the lines below the egret are? Great work! I prefer the first one a lot more. The extra detail makes it more appealing, and I like how the birds are in size order. The line on he first photo is not confusing at all. I think it adds to the picture. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bird Nuts Posted May 31 Share Posted May 31 20 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: A new page for the coloring book: some birds in flight! There's a Great Blue Heron, a White-faced Ibis, and a Snowy Egret. I've posted two compositions below. Any preference between them? In the first image, is it clear what the lines below the egret are? I think I like the second composition better as the shapes seem to fit into each other, but either one is good. However, the food in the ibis's beak was slightly confusing to me. Maybe leave that out? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirVive Posted June 3 Share Posted June 3 On 5/31/2023 at 6:11 AM, Birds are cool said: Great work! I prefer the first one a lot more. The extra detail makes it more appealing, and I like how the birds are in size order. The line on he first photo is not confusing at all. I think it adds to the picture. I agree, and the background detail only works with that picture on the bottom of the page like you have it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 Thanks, all! I'm working on the text now, with short sections on a variety of topics: color, habitats, flight, etc. About half of the pages will have illustrations and text, while the other half are just illustrations. Here's a page from near the front, based on a great photo from @Kevin. I also have some activities at the end of the book, but I'm wondering if I should add anything else. Jokes? Fun facts? A lighter tone? I've also attached a new illustration, which I may add a little text to. It shows some fantastic fliers: a Wandering Albatross and an Arctic Tern. I like these two birds for their marvelous mastery of flight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirVive Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 (edited) Excellent! Cattails is one word. A good, well placed joke never hurt 🙂 Edited June 10 by SirVive 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirVive Posted June 11 Share Posted June 11 P. S. Sometimes a puzzle of some sort is fun too - such as taking the first letter on every page and unscrambling them to find the name of a mystery bird or any sort of that type of puzzle. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 Hi folks! I added a couple new activities to my website: a bird observation sheet and a BirdSearch! In the BirdSearch, you can look for the names of the U.S. state birds, then try to match them to the states they represent. (I may have made it a little too difficult.) Anyway, you can find small images below, or find the full size PDFs on my website (https://colorbird.org/more-activities/). I'll probably make "easy" and "medium" BirdSearches too, to complement the difficult U.S. State Birds one. Any thoughts on these two activities? Any other activities I should add? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake Fingers Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 10 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: Hi folks! I added a couple new activities to my website: a bird observation sheet and a BirdSearch! In the BirdSearch, you can look for the names of the U.S. state birds, then try to match them to the states they represent. (I may have made it a little too difficult.) Anyway, you can find small images below, or find the full size PDFs on my website (https://colorbird.org/more-activities/). I'll probably make "easy" and "medium" BirdSearches too, to complement the difficult U.S. State Birds one. Any thoughts on these two activities? Any other activities I should add? Very nice! The BirdSearch/Searches sounds like a fun idea! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 I made another BirdSearch. This one should be a little easier. It's a word search, plus a little trivia! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted July 25 Author Share Posted July 25 Another "BirdSearch"! This one has lots of basic bird words, meant for younger birders. Between the three word searches, I think I have beginner, advanced, and expert covered. You can find the PDF on my website colorbird.org. Also, if any of you need activities for bird events (especially aimed at kids), feel free to use the coloring book pages or word searches on my site. You can download and print PDFs. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 Hi folks! The coloring book is slowly coming together. I have some fact-checking to do, but I'd love to get some feedback at this point. If you'd like to see the whole book, let me know and I'll send you a digital copy. Alternately, you can see the cover and the "Activities" page below, which is near the end of the book. Any suggestions? Are there any other activities I should add? Thanks to everyone! 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bird Nuts Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 17 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: Hi folks! The coloring book is slowly coming together. I have some fact-checking to do, but I'd love to get some feedback at this point. If you'd like to see the whole book, let me know and I'll send you a digital copy. Alternately, you can see the cover and the "Activities" page below, which is near the end of the book. Any suggestions? Are there any other activities I should add? Thanks to everyone! It's looking great! I do see one error - the bird on the activities page is a nuthatch not a chickadee. 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted August 2 Author Share Posted August 2 3 hours ago, The Bird Nuts said: It's looking great! I do see one error - the bird on the activities page is a nuthatch not a chickadee. 🙂 Thanks! I identified that bird correctly for my photo albums, but I guess I spaced for the coloring book. Anyway, I'm glad it's identifiable even without its colors! I'll go ahead and fix that. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds are cool Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 On 7/31/2023 at 11:42 PM, GracesWarbler said: Hi folks! The coloring book is slowly coming together. I have some fact-checking to do, but I'd love to get some feedback at this point. If you'd like to see the whole book, let me know and I'll send you a digital copy. Alternately, you can see the cover and the "Activities" page below, which is near the end of the book. Any suggestions? Are there any other activities I should add? Thanks to everyone! Looks really good! Coming together quite nicely. In really like the 'activities' page. I think that will jump start a lot of beginners or people who are interested in birds, but don't really know about birding. Can't wait to see the finished product! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds are cool Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 Also, the word searches are pretty cool! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 It's been a minute since I posted here, but I'm still working on my coloring books! If you're interested in arts and crafts, read on. A couple updates: First, I decided to release a second edition of my Birds of the Southwest Coloring Book. Mostly, I wanted to make it a little smaller. Since there are large areas of the same colors, I felt like a smaller edition (7 by 10" instead of 8.5 by 11") would make for a better coloring experience. I also gave it a new cover and put the bird descriptions under each illustration, so people can learn about birds while they color. Hopefully kids (and adults!) will enjoy it. The first two photos below are from this book. As an aside, I had a table at a local craft fair this past weekend with the first edition and I sold 20 copies! Secondly, I've been experimenting with paper. So far, I've been printing through Amazon's printing service (KDP). However, I'd love to be able to do some watercolors, and the KDP paper isn't thick enough for that. To explore my options, I printed one copy of my upcoming book through a different service, where I could use 100lb paper. I like it a lot, and you can see @IKLland's hummingbird in the last photo. (I wasn't worried about accurate colors, as you can see.) I like the paper, which only had minimal warping under the watercolors, but I'm not sure if the economics or using an external printing service would work. Each book would cost ~$6 for me, then Amazon would take ~$4-5 for each book, and I would still have to handle all the shipping myself. Oh well, I'll think about my options. Have you all been doing anything artsy? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bird Nuts Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 10 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: It's been a minute since I posted here, but I'm still working on my coloring books! If you're interested in arts and crafts, read on. A couple updates: First, I decided to release a second edition of my Birds of the Southwest Coloring Book. Mostly, I wanted to make it a little smaller. Since there are large areas of the same colors, I felt like a smaller edition (7 by 10" instead of 8.5 by 11") would make for a better coloring experience. I also gave it a new cover and put the bird descriptions under each illustration, so people can learn about birds while they color. Hopefully kids (and adults!) will enjoy it. The first two photos below are from this book. As an aside, I had a table at a local craft fair this past weekend with the first edition and I sold 20 copies! Secondly, I've been experimenting with paper. So far, I've been printing through Amazon's printing service (KDP). However, I'd love to be able to do some watercolors, and the KDP paper isn't thick enough for that. To explore my options, I printed one copy of my upcoming book through a different service, where I could use 100lb paper. I like it a lot, and you can see @IKLland's hummingbird in the last photo. (I wasn't worried about accurate colors, as you can see.) I like the paper, which only had minimal warping under the watercolors, but I'm not sure if the economics or using an external printing service would work. Each book would cost ~$6 for me, then Amazon would take ~$4-5 for each book, and I would still have to handle all the shipping myself. Oh well, I'll think about my options. Have you all been doing anything artsy? Wow!! That is so amazing you sold that many at the craft fair! Congratulations! And the new smaller edition looks awesome! Great idea! I've been busy with non-art-related things, but I've finally gotten back to work on my bird calendar. Done 7 of the 12 illustrations and I found a drop-shipping company that prints calendars that looks very promising. Oh yeah, and I entered a pet portrait contest...waiting for them to announce the winners! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted September 26 Author Share Posted September 26 I made a crossword puzzle! It shouldn't be too challenging. If you give it a try, let me know how it works. I'm going to make a more advanced one with some of my favorite birds. Colorful_Intro_to_Birds_crossword.pdf 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bird Nuts Posted September 26 Share Posted September 26 15 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: I made a crossword puzzle! It shouldn't be too challenging. If you give it a try, let me know how it works. I'm going to make a more advanced one with some of my favorite birds. Colorful_Intro_to_Birds_crossword.pdf 49.1 kB · 0 downloads Looks awesome! I'll try it when I have time! I love word games like this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted November 11 Author Share Posted November 11 Anyone want to go a global birding expedition? I've created a crossword puzzle about just such a journey. You'll travel across all seven continents in search of some of the most magnificent birds in the world. Check it out! (Warning: it may be a little tough, so a feel free to use any birding tools, such as guides and websites.) This is another activity for my bird book, so let me know what you think! Colorful_Intro_to_Birds_expedition1.pdf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birds are cool Posted November 11 Share Posted November 11 10 hours ago, GracesWarbler said: Anyone want to go a global birding expedition? I've created a crossword puzzle about just such a journey. You'll travel across all seven continents in search of some of the most magnificent birds in the world. Check it out! (Warning: it may be a little tough, so a feel free to use any birding tools, such as guides and websites.) This is another activity for my bird book, so let me know what you think! Colorful_Intro_to_Birds_expedition1.pdf 51.88 kB · 1 download I really like the idea! An idea I had; maybe add a resource that people can use for the puzzle? I'll be sure to try it out later when I have time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted Thursday at 07:57 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 07:57 PM Happy Thanksgiving, all! I turned some of my coloring book illustrations into colorable postcards! They also have fun bird facts on the back. Check them out at https://www.etsy.com/shop/colorbirdbooks. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GracesWarbler Posted Monday at 03:35 AM Author Share Posted Monday at 03:35 AM Stuck inside on a rainy day? Want to try a BirdSearch or CrossBird (i.e. wordsearch or crossword)? If so, you're in luck! I've consolidated some of my puzzles onto this page: https://colorbird.org/activities/. Feel free to print some out or share with a curious friend or relative. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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