October……The Raven….

I just adore October and I also love the beautiful Raven.  Many of you might remember my mention of my nephew’s wedding last month.   The wedding ceremony was held at the Edgar Allen Poe Museum’s Secret Garden in Richmond.  We took the opportunity to stroll through the museum while there and  it was then that inspiration hit and I knew I needed to develop a painting of the Raven.  What better month then October.  I wanted to do something with a bit of a Halloween atmosphere and looked to some of my photos from our stay in Savannah and the Bonaventure Cemetery.  This is the photo I’m using as reference for my background…..

It is not about the ‘composition’ in this photo.   What I love is the mossy, almost ethereal quality of the photo and that is what I want to try and capture in my background.  The misty…out-of-focus…background combined with a very detailed Raven…that’s what I’m looking to achieve

As to the Raven, I found nothing in my photos so I looked to the Paint my Photo site.  If you are unfamiliar with this site, do click on the link and check it out.  I have found it to be an invaluable resource.  Here are two photos I found

love, love, love the colors of those feathers

and this guy….I can hear that caw or is it….’nevermore’

I’ve also decided to work much larger then I normally do and on a different surface.  As an Artist, I’m always looking for new ways to grow and create.  This painting is being done on Strathmore’s 500 series illustration board.  The size is 22 by 30, 10ply.  At this point, the ‘jury’ is still out.  I know many wildlife artist who choose to use this at their primary surface, that is why I decided to give it a try.  The pros are no prep, easily cut to size, and it has the smooth surface I prefer to render small details easily.  As to the cons, it does seem to ‘grab’ the paint a bit more then my usual gessobord surface and the paint is more difficult to ‘lift’ once applied.  That is not a ‘deal breaker’ for me, just a bit of a learning curve!  I’m currently using DecoArt’s Traditions acrylic paint.  I like Traditions, because they (unlike many acrylics) do give you the ability to ‘lift’ colors even after they have dried.  The flip side to this is that you must use glazing medium to ‘set’ the color, before adding another layer.  So far, I have not found the need to use the glazing medium, but that may change as I continue.  I have also wondered if I could use the glazing medium as a ‘sealing’ agent on the board before I begin the painting.  More experimentation to follow!

Here is my sketch of Raven 1

Done with pencil on tracing paper, applied to painting surface with transfer paper

At this stage, I have applied the first layer for the background.  I wet the illustration board with my handy little spray bottle and then randomly dropped in the washes of color.  Working in small areas and continuing to use my spray bottle to help the applied paint to run done the board.  I was using plenty of water  and I did find that the board did warp a bit, but as it dried it flattened.  At this point, I was only planning on using one raven in the composition, but there is a possibility of another raven being added or I may decide to simply ‘cut off’ the excess background area.  Another ‘perk’ of working on illustration board…I can change the dimensions of my painting at any point.