Meanwhile, I Keep Dancing

Here it is, finally. Wow, I am getting into a bad habit of "I'll just post it the next day." I love crows. I don't know why exactly, since they are scavengers, and they aren't very pretty, but something about them I really like. Crows are smart. They are inventive. They have this attitude of "yeah, we're here, deal with it." And the fact that a grouping of them is called a Murder, a Murder of Crows, is just very very cool. Is this my emo side coming out? My inner Edger Allen Poe revealing itself? Hard to say. I did not intend this to be as geometrical as it turned out to be. I wanted to do something flowing, something in flight. But fluid motion is something I do quite a lot in my art, so I think a little geometric cartoony was a challenge. I may have been inspired by M. C. Escher at the time, though the repeating pattern didn't really happen. Overall, I was surprised but pleased with what I got.

My first piece for this 30 day challenge! To draw myself. I'm getting it in a little later than I intended (after midnight, so technically I should be working on my next one now) but I hope the viewer will forgive me. I spent the evening well; drinking coronas and then watching The Blues Brothers with my roommate. :-) An evening very well spent! I honestly had a hard time at first deciding how I wanted to portray myself. Lately I've felt unclear of who I am, sketchy and not quite settled. It seemed appropriate to put my pen to paper and draw what I saw in the mirror without picking my pen up. The masks and the crow just come from the air. And I love trees. And doodling.  I at first thought that this piece would be more monochromatic, with only a touch of color in the eyes and a smattering on the background. But as anyone who has worked with watercolor knows, it has a mind of it's own. A good reminder for me that I actually have very little control over things in my li...