The raven as I have said in an earlier blog is a clever beautiful bird. The American Raven is really large and one is always surprised to see how large they actually are.  The native Americans have stories about Raven hw he taught his brothers how to hunt so they could feed themselves and thier families. He also is found in some of Charles deLint's books, a fantasy writer. The Raven in the old stories is always shown as wise and clever....

Bsion and Birds

Painting portraits of animals I have seen is rewarding in a unique way. The memory works by stimulus as we all know. As I begin to paint something I have seen, it takes me back to that moment and the moments after. In taking the picture of the raven, it was early morning and he seemed to pose for that perfect shot. Perfectly still it was as if he were saying, "yes I am a pretty bird now take the picture!" I didn't use black, I used a mixture of cerulean blue, alizarin crimson and ultramarine with a smudge of cad orange. then added a tiny tiny touch of white.

The bison underpainting is where I finally got the hang of relative proportion you find one thing in a scene and measure all else to that one thing. Example: take one Bison and measure all other Bison against it. For that moment he is Every Bison.

Not only am I taking Painting II, but also Figure Drawing I.This is the second drawing I have turned in to receive a grade. The hardest thing has been adjusting to the size of the paper. Too, standing for three hours is not something I do well. I am learning alot from the teacher Mr. Dewayne Pass. He breaks things down to thier simplest form,  answering questions clearly. Anatomy can really give insight to what one sees when looking at a figure. If one knows what is going on underneath there can be greater depth and character to a drawing.

Some paintings

Some paintings flow from one's brush others work to make one humble. This painting has made me a humbler artist.  Tiny incremental steps to achieving the 'make them believe status'. Clouds are beautiful and tricky but the rewards are worth it. Discovering the the lovely warmth of cerulean blue based greys make it a treat too.

The raven

The raven is a canny clever bird. he is beautiful with black feathers that give a blue sheen in the sun. I began this painting with a siena wash and blocked in the raven and where I wanted the grassy shadows to go. Viridian and alizarin and blue made the shadows warmly intense.  I merely sketched in the raven with Fr.Ultramarine and a touch of cerulean and orange. I fell in love with ravens many years ago on a trip to Wyoming at Yellowstone. A park ranger there told us a story of two ravens who helped themselves to someone else's lunch. A motorcycle left unattended with flip top saddlebags aroused the curiosity of two ravens in the park. They opened the saddlebags and found baggged sandwiches. Working together these two bandits took turns carying off one of the sandwiches and when they deemed they had gone far enough they broke open the baggie and had lunch. I have loved ravens ever since.

Here is the beginning study of clouds. A wash of siena and the house and foliage with the clouds above give that feeling of limitless space I only feel in Texas.

The next step cleared up some mysteries for me. We firmed up our compostions and then with viridian and blue and touch of yellow and orange the greenery became green. Alizarin warmed up the shadows and our skies were warm with cerulean blue and cad orange and white. The clouds became clouds as then the paint was pulled and pushed into our vision of what clouds were to be. I left a lot of the siena showing in my painting because.... I like siena. I love the warmth of it and how it can make a painting glow. 

Well this is the finished product.  I learned even more this time, than the last time I painted a fruit study. The process has not changed. It is still gesso, tone, abstract, shadows, medium tones and lights. Thick over thin and always start dark and go toward the light. But this time I really got the idea of thick paint being a modeling tool. The strokes that comprise the fore ground were few but thick. Titanium white and yellow ochre are mixed to make a glowing white that is then stroked on thickly and in a painterly fashion. The flow of thick paint moving smoothly over a cansvas is a satisfying action and once done it felt that something wonderful has been accomplished.