"American Icon"

icon  (ˈaɪkɒn) - a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement

I have decided to title my little bull Bison "American Icon" as I think of them as one of the critters that people think of that "makes America, America" (maybe after the bald eagle).

This piece was colored with ampersand inks (as are all of my colored works) and size is 10"x8" and he will be headed to the Greeley Stampede Western Art show at the end of June too.  And NO I am not scratching a new board every day.  I just happened to have several close to completion at the same time.  Also once they are sprayed with fixative it evens out the tones and makes them easier to take pictures of.

"American Icon"
Scratchboard and Ink
10"x8"
© Cathy Sheeter

I also spent a couple of hours working on my harris hawk woodburning...it takes a back seat to my scratchboards when I have works due for shows, but I do hope to finish it one of these days ;)

Harris Hawk Pyrography on Birch Plywood
18"x24"

Going For Gold

I have been a big slacker about keeping my blog updated and apologise... life seems to get in the way! At any rate here is the progress of my newest piece of a cat stalking some goldfinch. I have titled it "Going For Gold" size 18"x24"

Colored and Finished!

"The Naturalist" is now officially DONE!

14"x11"
scratchboard and ink
timber wolf and painted lady butterfly

To view it at 100% check out the zoomify version at: http://www.aphelionart.com/zmnaturalist.html


 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Limited edition prints are available as well as the original!

Walking The Line - almost done

close to done with the big couger.  Not a good photo, but you get the general idea :)

And a bit more on the horse too

A King On His Throne

This is the piece I have most recently been working on.  Size is 12"x24" and it is colored with ampersand inks.  It is not quite done yet, but getting close :)  Reference photo used with permission taken by Ben Fredrickson.

"The Interuped Drink" completed

Just in time to sign it with the years 2009 I am happy to finish Raja's piece and very pleased with how it came out.  It has a subtle dark green background that is quite difficult to see in this photo.  I am going to wait to put a zoomify image on my web site until I get a scan or better photo of the work that shows the background more correctly. The values and colors on the cat are about correct.  Thanks for following along... and on to the next piece and a new year!!

The Interrupeted Drink- the start of adding color (in real life)

I'm not quite done with the color and for some reason a lot of the reddish brown areas are showing really light, but the eyes look about right. I'll try to finish it by the end of the weekend and hopefully get a chance to get a more accurate photo.  The real thing is somewhere between this image and the photoshopped version, but I think I will leave the colors a bit more subdued than the photoshop version.

Closer

And even closer...

"The Interrupted Drink" and photoshopping color

 am almost done with the black and white portion of Raja.  I have decided to call it "The Interrupted Drink". I will be coloring the eyes and adding subtle color throughout the rest of the board as well.  I have added more water drops and toned down the chest area as well.  I still have some 'tweeking' to do in a few areas, but overall the black and white scratching is close to complete.  I have deviated from my photo reference a moderate amount and gone off of a vision in my head, which is not always a good idea.  At times the way it looks in my head is not how it turns out, but overall I am fairly pleased with the result so far.  I chose to add the water to add more visual interest to the work as well as tell more of a story than just a tiger head portrait. 

Curious how the water drops are done?  Here is a closer look:

Often (almost always) when I am planning on coloring a piece I do it first in photoshop to see how I want to get it to look.  It helps me also figure out what colors of ink I will need to mix up, and how strong or diluted I want them to be.  In this case Raja actually has quite a lot of light reddish brown fur on his face and around some of his stripes.  I will use the ink quite diluted for these areas, as I don't want to overpower the white.  I will ink, then re scratch several layers.  So while the photoshop version won't be exactly how the color version will end up being it does give me a good idea of where I am going and the colors I will need to get there.  Here is my photoshop mock up of Raja with colored eyes and fur.

Often when coloring a work you need to scratch it lighter than if you were going to leave it a black and white work.  I can now tell from my mock up in photoshop a few areas that I will need to take lighter than I have them too (such as the chest that I just darkened :D)  (and the green in the background I am not sure about yet, we'll see)