Going Home

This painting is based from an original idea I had when I was much prettier, and I didn't make that weird noise when I get off the couch. It's loosely based on Indian belief in the afterlife. The stars in the skies represented campfires to them. And they thought when you passed you headed up to the sky to be with your ancestors around the campfires. The hawk feathers as canoes are my imagination at work. As well as the paddles stirring into the clouds like breaking water. It was very popular among my pieces at Red Earth and is now owned by a fan of my work. This is an acrylic piece. Right now, I'm working in watercolor and ink for the upcoming SEASAM show in Tishomingo.
If you are an aspiring artist and want to know about the painting I will tell you this. Thalo Blue is awesome when it comes to sky. I use to go with the obvious light blues for sky but have switch now to Thalo with Titanium White to make my day sky. And it is just a great night time color.
For the moon and it's lighting I just varied the amount of blue to white as I painted. A foam brush gave a pretty good base for this effect and then I worked it up from there. I may revisit this theme again with a much larger canvas and when I have more time. This piece was about three days work. I'm still a bit slow when I paint. Think it's the OCD I developed working as a graphic designer. And being a typical artist, there are things I would change now. The photo is not great. Sorry - my lighting techniques are kind of primitive right now.