The second day of Bison painting

I think this is at the yucky stage. The magic hasn't happened yet but it will.

"And the Raven greets the Morning"

When you know you have done good work there is not other feeling like it in the world. I finished the Raven painting and I was satisfied. We tried a lignin treatment but that was a non issue. SO I began again and worked the old fasshioned way a step at a time. The post the bird was sitting on was a gnarly thing with lots of whorls and broken light. Trying to be as painterly as possible I brushed ochres and cad red and siena with touches of blue. The raven needed only a few more violets and blues to be complete and the grass was a matter of push and pull until the right feeling had been accomplished.

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.