Two is for Joy (practice)

   I sort of saw this yesterday, except the sky was grey and silver, and there is a line of trees behind this field. But there were two crows, just like that, perched on cropped stalks.

     The sky is blue because I wanted to practice doing the gradation in colored pencils. There are five blues in the sky, plus white. I've painted that a lot of times, and it is always the same each time. With colored pencils, I'm sort of having to reinvent the wheel for myself, because the process is not the same as painting. The newness of it is a blessing.

    

 

Three for a Key

    To be honest, this is looking like it is going to be a bit too pretty for my taste, even though the flower she is blowing away is henbane, and it is associated with mental illness. 

     For a little while I thought about adding mosquitoes to add to the misery, but, mosquitoes are too small, unless I decided to turn the image into a '50's horror flick. So, I opted for crows, which are very smart and communicative, and are the stars of their very own counting rhyme. 

    I'm glad I got this far before the semester really takes over my life. There is still a lot to do on it, but for better or for worse, the composition is mostly set, and I can work on it in bits when I have the time.

    I think for my next painting, even if I decide to do the toe dancer dream, the subject is going to be older. And not too pretty.

 

What I am thinking

Maybe I'll do this.
Yup, the pots will have to go.
Maybe we'll see if some crows would work instead.

 

  I think I set a couple of records here, both for how long it took to make this painting, and also how long it has been since I have posted.

    I wish I could speed up my process. My profs would have said the same thing. But, I don't seem to be able to power through problems in paintings. I have to wait for for the answer to bubble up to the surface. Also, I need to carve out more time to do it. Teaching and real life have a tendency to get priority. 

Here is a close-up of the face:

      I won't name all the struggles, but they were real. I'm hoping a coat of varnish will ease over some of them. There are some progress shots of this painting on my Instagram, if you'd like to see some of the stages it went through. My user name is lynettevought.

   My next one is going to be a lot smaller!

    

     

A Murder of Crows

For IF: The crows swarmed around the door, which was a portal to the other dimension.

Mirando al Sur

Here is a link to a preview of Mirando al Sur, at the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. My painting Home (at right) is in it. http://womanmade.org/show.html?type=group&gallery=mirando_al_sur2009&pic=1

Red Riding Hood

A little fairy tale for Illustration Friday!

There is a song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs about the wolf in Little Red Liding Hood; how he is going to try to behave himself so that she won't be scared, and he hopes that she might end up liking him. This painting is about how how some girls tame the big bad wolf, safe on her Throne.