Night Bird
 

Night Bird.

A woman is sleeping. Her spirit is not. There is a Night Bird.

assorted pencils on paper - 14" x 22" / 35 cm x 56 cm

I haven't given this drawing the final polish yet. It has been sitting in the other room so I didn't see it for a while. That way my eye will be fresh for putting it all into it's final focus. But the piece is far enough along to show, I think.

This one I'd like if anyone had thoughts or whatever to share them with me. This piece was a process piece in that the composition existed but many elements evolved while it was getting drawn. I think of this as a surreal work as well as a set of considerations, and wondered what other people think of it.

no suggestions. Just good work

kramus, you're brilliant. The work is awesome and makes me think. The mass detail of this piece is stunning.

If I were to give one suggestion, it would be that if it's not intended to be hard (I like the hardness, but...) I would soften the woman's face a little bit. It is reminicent of a skull.

But absolutely wonderful work. You're so talented!

i dig that bird.

evil, i say.

is there a story behind this combination of images that you'd like to share? or are we left to imagine our own?

thanks folks

The writing that goes with the pic is very short;

A woman lies down. Her body feels the curve and turn of the Earth itself. She seems to hear a rush of water as sleep laps at her. Her spirit is not at rest. There is a nightbird.

I didn't know this was a picture of dream spirits of a woman for a while. I just knew the way it was going to look and that the bird was both part of and a symbol of places that are often unseen within. It was a real moment when I knew that this was the landscape of a woman.

Cello, the separation of the head from the body is part of what I'd doing. You know sometimes when you are mostly asleep and your body is this great inert mass that you don't know how to move? It is lush and full and open and removed from the noise inside her head. I wanted ambiguity in her face too - is it pain or puzzlement or orgasm . . . stuff like that.

damn dude.........i really trip on the style you have.

nicely done kramus.

Really good stuff... I'd love to see you work in so other media (paint or pen and ink) but then I said to you when we chatted last week...

This particular work just screams colour to me...

Amazing kramus.....beautiful

I truly envy such skill.....and every image garners further respect

Once you mentioned the sleep and rush of water... it gave some sense of form to the darker areas - especially in the last section you posted. That'd be an avenue to explore in detail contours.... but I love the lifting of spirit from body - very subtle yet it speaks volumes.

Brilliant! I really feel that the second pic (the bird) has a lot of motion to it. It jumps of the page and glides towards me.

I'm not sure it needs colour. Sometimes when I dream I can't remember what colour things are.

That is amazingly beautiful!!!!

I thought I'd said thankyou for posting - me bad

I'm glad you like the look flyman. It seems to work, eh?

Charlatan I think I'll post a few including a painting dating to my late 20's (yes, That old :()

Tecoyah I appreciate your respect.

Amonkie I am pretty pleased with the way the lady lifts to the sky. The lower left she is drifting a couple of different ways in the water as well but those are much smaller and less obvious. I am interested in what you mean by Detail Contours leading the way in further explorations ?? This piece has several hours to go on it and any input is appreciated.

Abberkok that bird is driving me nuts. I still don't see him in complete focus, and I want to have him right. That's a toughie for me to finish. I'm glad the work I have done is doing it's job though, because he was where I started.

Sweetpea I am glad you had a look-see :) I find your own posts beautiful ;), so a bit of balancing of the TFP karma feels good to me :)

Very nice work, you obviously have a lot of drawing skills. My eye is particularly attracted to the bright opening and moonlike object in the backround. When you do the final polishing you might want to consider having the light from these areas wash over a bit more the woman in the foreground. But what do I know, it is your expression and what you have now may reflect it best.

I dusted this piece off and put in some time darkening and adding tonal range. I think it is time to get the thing on a wall where I can feel peaceful while ignoring it - I keep expecting to find somebody has slopped coffee on it or knocked something over onto it :eek: Do you ever find that you have looked at/worked on a piece too long? I have trouble seeing this drawing without a jaundiced and cynical eye - it appears to be a mass of clumsy scribbles when I look at it. Time to put it to rest.

It's beautiful.

I know what you mean about being around one's own work too much and only seeing what's wrong, losing the appreciation for what's there. Once the 'wow factor' fades, it's just something we spent time on. Except for a stencilled piece in my kitchen, there's no work of my own anywhere but in boxes and drawers....and the floor...oh, and there's the huge portfolio....the shelf behind my chair...
but none on the walls:D

:thumbsup: Very nice!
If it were mine.....I might eliminate the large white background "hole"....turn it dark and solid, for me, it is one to many focal points that does nothing, it distracts from the moon, my favorite part (also the bird and the woman's face:) ) I would probably reverse the curve in the rib cage area....making her body more traditionally beautiful and sexy, less weird looking. That is just me though.
How about copying it, enlarging, and playing around with some pale watercolor or transparent acrylic washes....just for fun....

Great job!

Ng - sometimes it seems that work that I leave up on the wall tends to be pieces I spent less time on. But I am going to be hanging some things on my ladies walls now that she has finished some renovations. I just hauled a bunch of work out of storage, and after separating some pieces out that will go into a show in a restaurant here in Toronto (! my first !) there are still several drawings I would like to see again. Why don't you put more of your up in your house? You do such beautiful things.

Thanks Lizra. The hole is there for a reason, it is the place where anything can come from - the source so to speak. I probably could have composed the drawing more (referring to too many focal points), but in part it sort of happened, and I went with what flowed out of me. I am not sure what curve in the rib cage area you refer to - within the frame of the body or the water that cups her - I do know that she is surreal in her form because she is melding with her dreamscape. If it is distracting I want to know, so I don't do it again :) I like the idea of playing with a print and colour. Who knows what may come of such fun, eh? Thanks for your critique :thumbsup:

Thank you for the compliment, Kramus:icare: .(altho I must say, my work is a badly done coloring book compared with yours)
Congrats on your first showing! May it just be the beginning...
I have yet to find something of my own that I would deem worthy of my sight on a daily basis, I guess. I am my own worst critic. Normally, before a show, I will hang my latest work on my dining room wall to see if it's show-worthy, but that's about it. I do have yours right next to me on my wall.:thumbsup:

Well....it's wonderful! Maybe then ,just darken the lower right corner area.....to place more focus on all the fantastic focal points going on towards the middle. Her face has a slighty weird quality that suggests a "anything is possible" dream-state, it's really nice! :)

I'm going to bump all my art threads - attachments uploaded to TFP are going to be deleted as per http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=123398, and I would like to put this stuff out there one last time :)