Sketching Crows

We've had an abundance of crows in the park this year and I enjoy watching them interact. All the posturing that goes on and some seem to be holding conversations with each other. Intimate conversations. Backs hunched, heads close together...I can almost imagine them whispering secrets

only crows can share. They are such smart birds. I wonder if they gossip. One would think so watching them. I've spent time sketching these crows while I sat on my sofa and watched them out my front windows. I thought I'd share a few. They might find their way into a painting or two. Who knows.

                                                                               

Mr Doob Crows

I'm feeling much better but my time away from my art has left me searching for renewed inspiration. I've browsed my photo files but found nothing that excites me so today I played with Mr Doob. The weather here in northern Michigan has begun to shift from arctic tundra conditions to something near normal and it's brought out a flock of crows which I've enjoyed sketching. My sketches are crude so I decided to try my hand at some digi art. For those not familiar with Mr Doob (link) it's a free digital art program that tests not only your drawing skills but your skills at maneuvering a computer mouse as well. If you follow the link I provided, click on the color wheel icon on the menu at the top of the page to use the sketching features. I did put the top image into GIMP photo editing program to 'feather out' the feathers.

Cawcus~Completed

Here I've taken the liberty to mat and frame the painting online...a simple pale gold metal frame with jet black mat.

I've included two closeup shots to try and show the blue iridescent paint and gold ink which doesn't want to show up well in photos. IRL the blue is less apparent and the gold is more apparent. I could not correct this in my photo editor.:(

To complete this piece I've added the eyes of the crows and embellished their feathers with DS Iridescent Electric Blue. I also added some metallic gold ink for highlights and to help tie the crows into the background so they don't look cut out and pasted on. I've been wanting to do a painting in a narrow horizontal format for a long time but couldn't decide on the subject. This gathering of crows turned out to be just the ticket. Final dimensions are approx. 25 1/2" x 11 1/2".

Cawcus~WIP Update

I have been working, albeit slooowly, on this project. I decided on a Venetian plaster look for the background. I wanted something predominately warm so I started with a little perm. yellow, then switched to DS Quin. gold, Quin. gold deep and D-R Warm Sepia applied with a sweeping cross hatch motion using a damp 2" synthetic brush. Since I'm using black Speedball ink (which is opaque) for the crows I transferred my drawing first and brushed on the background paint right over the unpainted crows. I've found painting with Speedball ink works very well. It washes off/out with water so I was able to use my good watercolor brushes and it's wonderful for producing a deep, rich true black. Today I finished painting the crows. I'll be adding some iridescent paint to the feathers, possibly some colored pencil, finishing the eyes and after a suitable amount of 'look time' I may tweak a few areas before declaring this complete.

Cawcus~Developing a Concept

I've been observing a flock of crows that have been visiting the park this winter. Actually I think they may be ravens because they are huge. I keep a tripod in the front window and take photos whenever the opportunity presents itself. The title is a play on words, the word being caucus (link). Here I've gathered various sketches of crows, some from my own photos, some from imagination and others from images online and created a storyboard of sorts. The sizes of the birds in relationship to each other and within the composition are off and the placement is still a work in progress but my ultimate goal is to create the illusion of a town hall meeting or 'crow caucus'. Because these birds seem to always be communicating with each other in some fashion, seemingly having discussions, the idea just naturally evolved.

Sun Kings~Complete

The completed painting. The Zig marker is very shiny gold but I'm not sure that's apparent in this image.

I've removed the old frisket and placed a fresh piece over the crow. I then cut around the shape of the crow with an Exacto knife, removed the cutout and went over the exposed paper with black marker. I peeled off the rest of the frisket when the marker was dry and Voila! A black crow.

....I think. I'm really not sure if this needs something more or not. I'll have to look at it for a few days before I decide. I completed the crows and I love them. I'm wondering if I need to add more. I wound up removing the Frisket film from the crows, laying on a fresh piece of Frisket, creating a stencil of sorts with my Exacto knife, then coloring in the shapes with a permanent Sharpie. I also used black marker to color in gaps in the wax on the flower centers. I used my gold metallic Zig Painty to embellish the flowers, one stem and to paint all the leaves. Zig Paintys will mark over just about anything because they are oil based and they went over the paraffin very well.

Sun Kings~WIP

This is the result after another 4 pours, two with Pyrrol red, another just Indian yellow and one with a mixture of both.

The first pour which was just Indian yellow. I used Frisket film to protect my crows.

My wax 'pencils' which I carved out of a block of paraffin with an Exacto knife. I went over all the gold metallic pencil lines with the wax before starting my pours.

It's hard to tell from this image but here I've gone over all the lines with the gold metallic pencil.

My original drawing

I decided to stay with sunflowers for my next project so I came up with a more stylized version. I made my sketch on drawing paper, enlarged it and transferred it to #140 Fabriano HP paper. I played around in Elements with an image of my drawing first to get some ideas regarding colors. After trying out a few possible palettes I settled on DR Indian yellow and DS Pyrrol red.

Once the drawing was transferred to my working paper I went over all the lines with my metallic gold Prismacolor pencil. I chose to do simple crosshatching for the flower's centers. I had a certain effect in mind and decided to experiment with paraffin wax as a resist. No special wax, just the stuff you melt to seal jelly jars. It worked but I found I had to be careful not to use a synthetic bristle brush over it or the wax would rub off. Conclusion? Pouring was my best option. I am using a squirrel hair mop to very gently guide the paint only when absolutely necessary and so far the wax is staying put.

Intention: I want to create the illusion of great size and height for these sunflowers so I added some crows, not only for suggested scale but also because I think crows are cool and they go well with sunflowers. I drew a few outlines of crows on tracing paper so I could see where to place them in the composition. As the crows were on tracing paper, it was also possible to flip the line drawings over to change the direction of the crow's outline giving me more options.