Sappho’s Sparrows emerge!

80% finished piece — and for that, I am happy. Being that I’m not a “nature” painter, I had an interesting time making the sparrows look believable (and they’re still not there yet).

Sibyl- New drawing

As a last-minute addition to my upcoming show, I decided to use a reference photo I took a few weeks ago. Originally, I intended this to be a painting, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice drawing. To be honest, I am not a fan of it so far– between my skill with charcoal and the quality of the paper, the image has a grainy quality. I’m still learning how to get the most out of charcoal, so hopefully this will be an enlightening experience.

New drawing and some more sparrows

My model from a previous post.  Charcoal is hard to work with.

Concept sketch/rough layout for my sparrow painting.

“Sparrows drew thee”

I recently started translating some Sappho fragments. Her poetry is rife with imagery, and I am constantly struck with new painting ideas. One in particular, her Hymn to Aphrodite, caught my attention. Sappho describes Aphrodite as driving a chariot led by sparrows. How cool is that? So I sketched this today, hoping to turn it into a painting soon. I like the image of a cloud of sparrows, somehow heavenly and earthly all at once. Animals are interesting to draw because, even though they don’t seem to possess individual characteristics, each one seems different from the other. Nature has an anonymity to it, yet painting gives a “face” to each sparrow.

This is a collage of drawings I did, with color added in Photoshop. I’m excited to see where it goes.

Sketchbook page and a new painting

 

 

I’ve been working on a few things this month. Above is a sketch/underpainting for a new piece, which hopefully will be finished very soon. I also have some other ideas in the works.

Still Life in-progress

Inspired by my last still life, I decided to up the ante and try painting waxed paper again. I love the way it diffuses light and reveals subtle variations in color. I’m trying to achieve that transparent effect right now. Mostly, it involves a lot of glazing.

Prophet & Omen