Harold the Mockingbird

Harold the Mockingbird sings his heart out all day long, loudly and proudly for all to hear.

This art is based on actual events at our house. We have a mockingbird at our house who likes to sing his songs all hours of the day and night.¹ It seems like he sings the most when we are trying to sleep. Laura has named him Harold, since we all appear to be on good terms with each other.

Because of his constant singing, Harold is often on my mind. So when I was thinking about what to draw next, Harold was right there in my mind just waiting his turn.

The real Harold may not actually have a microphone, but his volume might make you wonder if he does. So this Harold has one, even though he is loud enough that he does not need it.

If you are going to sing, you might as well sing loudly and proudly!

Living Loudly

Sometimes, we tend to keep things to ourselves, thinking that others will know how we feel. In reality, others might be thinking something completely different if we do not tell them.

If you love someone, you should definitely tell them. And not just once, as the old joke goes about the man who said, “I told my wife I love her one time, and I will let her know if it ever changes.” Relationships do not work that way. We need to hear often that we are loved.

And if we need to hear it often, then we need to tell it often, too. Loudly and proudly. Especially to those we are closest to, such as a spouse. Post it on Facebook for everyone to see. Hire a skywriter to write it in the sky if necessary. Take out an ad in the newspaper. Whatever it takes.

Of course, love is more of an action than anything else. Saying it to someone is not as important as showing it to someone by your actions. That should be done loud enough for the person to hear who needs to hear it, too. Make sure they know by the things that you do, not just by the words that you say.

Show those special to you that you love them every chance that you have.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Ephesians 4:32

About the Artwork

Yes, this might not be an accurate representation of a mockingbird. But then, Mickey is not an accurate representation of a mouse, either. I did try to get the coloring to be somewhat representative of a real mockingbird, however.

Here is a look at the rough sketch version:

This was one of those times where there were not many changes required from the sketch version to the final version. Everything fell into place appropriately from the beginning.

The background was fun to do, too. I am always amazed by the textures in tree bark, so I tried to capture some of that here. For the leaf background, I wanted a “bokeh”² look, so I painted some general shapes in leaf colors and then applied a Gaussian blur to it. I was going for a background similar to what you might see in this photo from the Burnsland Archives, and hopefully this was successful.