Good Morning, Gents!

I finished this last weekend. For those of you who may not be in North America or may not know, this is a Northern Flicker. Specifically, this is a red shafted (meaning the feathers under his wings & tail are red). There is also a yellow shafted. And there is debate as to whether these are 2 different flicker species or 1 species with 2 different plummages.

For those of you who may want to know, this took me 24.5 hours to make.

If you noticed that the drawing I shared last weekend also had birch trees, that's because I LOVE birch trees! Probably because they're an unusual tree.

However, I came very, very close to taking the tree on the left side out, because I really liked how the green background looked. I just really liked the patterns and the way the 2 greens blended. I think it was so satisfying, because I used very tight circular motions. Chef's kiss! Gonna have to do that again!

Running the flowers in front of the tree, behind the flicker, and just so slightly in front of the stump gave a ridiculous amount of depth to the piece. The shadows also helped create that illusion. Also varying the size of the flowers from big to small or small to big, gives the impression that they were coming at you.

The background almost steals the show, which is not what you want. You want or at least I want the subject to be the center or a good balance between the subject & the background. The subject should be the center & if the background takes the attention, it feels like something is off. Why even have a subject? You can even have a strong subject & hardly any background at all & that still works. But I would say with this piece, the two are at the upper level of balance that you want. Really, this is what I strive for with most of my art. I want your eyes to not have a moment's rest. Every place you look has something to see & something that consumes you. It's hard to explain. So busy that it overwhelms you.

I don't understand the relationship between what you see & your reaction. I know that such a relationship exists, but I don't understand it. When you see it, you have a response (maybe, hopefully, a WOW or awe or even overwhelming). A gasp. I guess these are phsyiological & something that I can see & measure. But what that relationship is I don't understand. What's actually going on? I've been doing this for a long time, but that understanding still eludes me.

Black & white are the hardest to work with, especially oil pastel, because white is easily contaminated by everything & black easily contaminates almost everything easily. It's not as bad with colored pencil, but only because black tends to contaminate the areas where color has not been put down & can be covered easily by pastel. But black shavings & dust can easily contaminate the yellow or lighter colors if you're not careful.

One other thing to notice is the nearly impossible places I went in this piece. This is a hallmark of my art. I'll almost always do something in the space between the toe & the stump or between the petals of the flowers. Using white on white instead of another color. (P.S. I used circular motions for the petals against the straight or slightly curved lines around the tree, so the textures help differentiate the white on white. That may not be visible in the photo, but you'll definitely see it in person. Oil pastel is such a pleasant medium to work with, because you can see every stroke I make.) The black lines on the birch tree & stump that go between petals. Petals between the wings & tail. The black blotch that stretches to between two petals on the tree. The space between the petal & the tree near the lower wing. The dark green blotch that goes behind the flowers or in the tight space between his tail. Or between his tail, toe, & the stump. You will nearly always see stupidity like this in nearly every single drawing of mine. And I haven't shared each instance. Oh there's more in this piece & every piece.

And the best way I can describe this is that there are two parts to me. The creative part & the practical part. And the creative is alway ALWAYS saying how awesome it'll be/look if I do this, while the practical side is always b!tching about how difficult it will be to pull it off. Why not make this easier on yourself? Does there desperately need to be a space between the flower & the tree by his lower wing? Do we really need to put a black line between 2 petals or a dark blotch between his tail? Why risk contaminating or even ruining the piece in the 11th hour by dicking around with this? Just make it easy. It'll still look good.

But apparently I need the rush. Or the challenge. Someone asked me how I get the pastel so close to the bird without ruining it & to be honest there are 3 ways. The first is to make the bird slightly larger so that I can lay down pastel over it. The second is that I'm good enough to get super close without going over or leaving white spaces. The third is that I sometimes go over the colored pencil with the pastel & have to go back over it with colored pencil. Ultimately, you profit from whatever is going on inside of me, because you get the benefit of seeing the results & they're not bad. I don't think they make any of the pieces, but they certainly don't take away from any of them.

So, I hope you enjoy this one. It was certainly a lot of fun to make, uber satisfying to see, implatiently waited all week to share it with you, & yeah. As always, I appreciate your likes, comments, & support! Have a great weekend!