Dearest Alex,
I have not been writing recently, because there really was nothing much to write about. For the past several days I have been working on my owls--I'm still working on my owls. The background is detailed, and since I do plan to post my entire painting effort in the near future, you will see why. It doesn't help that my chosen medium is watercolour. One has to be very patient with watercolour, because if one does not wait for watercolour to dry properly, all one gets for her trouble is a mucky mess and a headache. That's not to say that I am not hopeful I'll be able to fix that mess.
I do believe that is also the charm of watercolour--the mistakes. With so much of the art going digital, there is that bit of humanity lost in an artist's work. Mistakes could be a pain, but they can also be beautiful.
I also have no idea the number of talons on an spotted owl. None of the photographs I use as reference give me a clear indication, and I cannot seem to find a book on drawing birds (at least not a particularly good book). Maybe there is an answer to it on the species report, but after thinking about it, I decided that since my book is not a nature book about owls, a mistake here and there may not be so bad. It will cause some of my readers to feel superior compared to a poor misguided artist like myself. So, I decided to go for the design instead and choose 4 talons in the end (though there are probably five--I have five talons on my main page). For some reason, 4 just looks better. I'm even thinking of making a game out of my mistakes. Once my book is published, I will post the mistakes I know about on my website, and if a reader finds one on their own, I'll send them a rough sketch from my work (Nature knows I have more than enough of those to go around).
Besides painting owls, I have also updated my webpage and have finally posted my first ever "Horsing Around" Donation Report. Only $10 CAN earned for Sick Kids. I do hope the word about my lovely project spreads soon. I have received more notes from people who are interested, but there is no point in posting anything until I receive payment along with that interest.
I've finished reading "Drawn to Life" by Walt Stanchfield and have written a review on Amazon.ca, titled: "Fantastic!"
Will write again soon!
Always,
M
