A Doodle Gone Good ~ The Raven

~The Raven ~ pen and ink, and photoshop

I have to admit, I have been horribly remiss when it comes to painting...sigh...where did my discipline go!?  I've been making jewelry, and inventing recipes for gluten free, sugar free baked goods, and sewing for the local farmer's market, everything else but painting.  The business of summer has turned into the business of fall!  

Also something else is taking up a bit of my time...I confess, I got a job. One where you work for someone else, put in your hours and get a paycheck. It is only part time, because I do still consider myself a full time artist, but I needed the social fix, more so than the money. Being an artist is a lonely occupation. And the stress of depending solely on my art for finances really took away a lot of the pleasure that I used to get from painting. I'm happy to say that this year has actually been wonderful as far as my art goes. Sales every year are getting better and better, I just needed a break so that I could learn how to love it again:) I started a new grizzly bear yesterday, though, so I think I'm back on a roll. I'll post progress pics soon. And I'm hoping to get another "charity" portrait done by next week, too. 

Anyways, this painting came together pretty quickly the other day. I was actually just doodling on a random bit of paper, and my doodle looked pretty good, so I decided to add some ink washes. The kids brought home a raven or crow feather, too, and I had another bit of paper, so I sketched the feather on that piece and added some more ink. I spent the rest of the day scanning it into the computer and trying to come up with a cohesive design in photoshop since it was just two random bits. At first I thought it would look neat with just the feather and the raven, but it looked too empty and disconnected. So I added a verse from Edgar Allen Poe's poem, "The Raven" behind, and it tied it seems to have visually tied it all together.

What do you think?