Powwow Dancers

Was playing in the Fail Book with my big paintbrush today, trying to capture the movement of some kids dancing at the Odawa Powwow in Emmet County, Michigan. Reference photos courtesy of fellow Flickrite June Hymas.

No great works of art here, but a few things went right.



This little guy had a least a hundred bright orange streamers on his outfit. I felt sorry for his momma having to sew all those on.

I got the proportions right! Yay! Except for the head. Sigh. I am very pleased that I was able to capture the movement of his legs and feet. The raised leg and pointed toe came out great. The foot still on the ground looks perfect too. Yay! And the feathers and fur of the headdress are excellent if I do say so myself.

There is good movement in this piece and that's something that is sorely lacking in my artwork.

All-in-all, this little guy gets a big Woot!

Now the girl. Oy. Some major fails here, but there are some accidents that came out right and I want to Remember These Things.



First of all, the poor girl was not the color of a beet. Too much paint on the brush and I couldn't get it thinned down to pink before it set. Oh well. I actually like the color, it's just not very lifelike. I smashed her nose in trying to get it to look right. She looks like a retired boxer with respiratory problems.

Her legs are way out of proportion to the rest of her body. Actually her feet may be right but her head is too big. One way or the other it looks like she may tip over at any moment.

Her face was too fat on the left side, so I painted the dark blue/black across it...a painterly facelift. I continued the blue black halo around her head as if it was a night scene. I very much like how that turned out.

The vest -


I like the watery mix of the different colors and how the yellowy orange pops next to the black and brown.

The fringe -


The fringe came very close to what I've been attempting to do. The colors have all run together so the separate strands are no longer discernible, but the eye "fills in" where each strand lives. Super wicked cool. Love that. Very painterly.

The leggings -



I like the richness of the mix of colors. I've been working and working and working on trying to get the paint to mix like this and every attempt has been a big fail. I managed it here because, duh, I didn't clean the brush out when switching colors. Now how simple was that solution. MUST. REMEMBER. THAT.

Fail Book 4 - Another Burial at the Bus Graveyard

(click to embiggen)

I'm a bridge geek so I made Hubby stop so I could take photos of the underside of this huge bridge over the river. It wasn't as interesting as I had hoped, but there was the most interesting collection of abandoned busses, campers and trailers under there. Cool! Serendipity.

I really liked this particular old relic with its curved humpiness. A 1940's model perhaps?


Question:
I went back and forth on whether or not to add color to the bridge. It is white stucco, so not much going on with it as far as actual color, but I could have added shading where there is now hatching.

Hubby said no, he liked it stark. I decided no because it would detract the eye away from the bus, but it seems unfinished. I think it's because there is so much inked detail but no color.

What would have been the optimal solution for a finished, balanced painting? Leave out the bridge altogether? Only include a few lines to suggest the bridge is there? Color the bridge? Color the trees too?

What would you have done?

Fail Book 3 - The Bluebird of Happiness

This was supposed to be a loose sketch with sloppy paint. Does this look loose to anybody???? No!

Dang it.

Fail Book 2 - Daddy Snores

Motto for The Fail Book: Draw big, Ink fat, Color bright.

Scribble-scribbling with a fat pen trying to do "loose" scribbley sketches. The more I draw the tighter they get. Sigh.

Why are cats compelled to sleep on any reading material? It seems like sleeping on a book would poke her in the ribs.

Fail Book 1

Dug a slightly used Mead Primary Composition book out of the trash in my BIL's elementary classroom. A few pages had been torn out of the front. Figured I could doodle in it late at night when I'm not trying to draw *something* but having fun drawing *whatever*. Sometimes I don't want to have to work at it.

Anyway I thought the book would be good to practice drawing eyes. I can't seem to get eyes right for some reason. So, I drew an eye. Fail. Drew a nose. Fail. Crap, I'm just gonna doodle.

I've been wanting to draw Neptune's Fountain but it was overwhelming. I've stared at the photo for so long I practically have it memorized. So I doodled it. Dang, it came out pretty good. Then I drew the Space Needle. It didn't suck.

Then I went back and scribbled some more on the nose figuring it couldn't get any worse. Dang, it got better. Shading down both sides was what it needed. Then I scribbled lips. Dang, they came out pretty good too.

Why can't I draw like this when I'm trying????