So I wanted to try my hand at putting together a portfolio, particularly now that I seem to be able to generate black and white art without the sort of effort normally associated with sawing off a limb. The problem, as always, is too many ideas–and once I settle on one, too many more ideas!
I was thinking an “Amazon Amazons” kinda theme (I know, it’s so obvious…) something in a mild cheesecake mode–nudity, but nothing overtly sexual. I gots no problems with nudes, but I’d feel a bit weird drawing Hot Tree Sloth on Feathered Serpent Action. (No, no, don’t try to envision it.) A mix of black and white pieces and color–say, four color, and four to six black and white. Sounds like a plan. T’only problem, of course, is what to put in! I spent five minutes with my “Wildlife of the Latin American Rainforest” book, and I’ve already got enough species to get me through “Amazon Amazons vol 3” and that doesn’t even include the birds. (And you gotta include the birds, right?) I mean, margays and ocelots and jaguars and jaguarundis and bush dogs and capybaras and sloths and multiple anteater species and tapirs and Andean spectacled bears and little brocket deer and a zillion kinds of monkeys and tree sloths and river otters and kinkajous and tayras and all the bats…well, you see the embarassment of riches. Brazilian porcupines, for god’s sake! They’re adorable!
The mind boggles. Attempting to pull myself together, I figure that the color pieces have to be Relatively Charismatic Mammals (since I figure I’ll have the color ones available seperately) and I can get a little more wild with the black and whites. So four Charismatic Mammals outta that…well, jaguars, obviously, and feathered serpents are pretty rare, so that’d be cool and…well, that’s enough to start. All of which makes me think “Gee, it’s so hard to be an artist. My big struggle today was decided which seriously cool animal to paint. Life is SO hard.”
Actually my big struggle today was avoiding the landmines of dog turds that some idiot keeping a Big Dog in an apartment has been leaving all over the back yard, which are now buried in snow, right until your unsuspecting boot breaks the fragile white skin over them and you’re tread deep in frozen canine poo. But I mean, c’mon, if that’s the worst thing that happens to me this week, I got nothin’ to whine about at all.
Oh, and did this yesterday, still playing with this style because it’s so dang fun to do.
Bamboo Thicket
