desperado_col

A demonstration of how this artwork came to be.

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I Am Crow In Progress

My portrait was based on this absorbing photograph of Two Whistles, a Crow Man. It was taken in 1908 by Edward S. Curtis. I've used a lot of his photographs for reference, they are fantastic if a little short on detail. But what can you expect when they are so old.

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1. After a basic pencil sketch I started by laying down the background. This was achieved by soaking the paper and feeding in washes of colour, then covering with clingfilm to form the abstract patterns. Once dry I began work on the hawk. A lot of work went into this. Again working wet into wet I fed in several washes of strong colour. Once dry I lifted out the shapes of the feathers with clean water, then went in with my detail brush.

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3. Here you can see where I applied the war paint. I used white designer gouache, being careful not to disturb the brown tones underneath. Once dry some of the wrinkles and creases are enhanced with shadow tones.

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5. Now the hair is blocked in. It looks black but there is blue, violet, sepia and black here.

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7. I then worked on the hair with my extra fine rigger and white goache. The white paint, if the right consistency, soaks into the dark giving the impression of realistic hair.
Next I worked some more on the clothing

8. My thoughts at this stage were that it needed a bit more colour to liven things up, so I put on the decorative epaulette and also added more glazes of colour into the background. Next I detailed the buckskin fringes. To do this it's a bit like the hair, putting in dark colours and then lifting shapes before detailing with a fine brush. All that was left was to go over the entire painting, tidying up edges and making minor adjustments until I was happy with it.

2. Next thing was to work on the face. Although I knew it would be covered with war paint, I find it important to get the features accurate, firstly to help me know where to apply the warpaint. Secondly the wrinkles and creases of the skin will show through in places.

4. After finishing the face I started work on the necklaces and clothing. I'm leaving the hair until later. I always work from the 'back' of the painting, forward.

6. Once dry I lifted out shapes and highlights in the hair.