Little Duck for Christmas

I realize that I haven't posted anything since the Shingles attacked me.  I hope you were not too worried from my silence.  I did indeed beat the Shingles into tiny useless fragments of what they once were.  I beat them so bad that if they ever dare show their face again all that I will have to do to banish them is whisper "scurry off you poxy pests!"  What I couldn't tell you then was that I was working on a secret project.  It was a project that was planned to be a Christmas gift, so you can understand why I couldn't reveal until after it had been gifted away.

The project was born into my mind during a visit to Altorf.  There was talk about the Summer trip to the U. P. of Michigan and the story of the Grand Island Chippewa.  It's a story and a place that inspired the last painting I did.  Of Little Duck's mother when she took her boat onto Lake Superior.
You can get it    *(HERE)* .  It's an awesome book about a unique group of people and what happened to them.  A situation was posed to me "it would be great to capture a moment when Little Duck was running."  It was something that Little Duck was famous for.  In that moment an image started to form.  I decided I was going to use the largest canvas I have ever attempted AND I was going to make it a portrait!  I was terrified.  I had only really painted on one stretched canvas before this project and I've never been good at drawing or painting people... and here I was going to paint a large portrait for a Christmas gift.  Not only was I terrified, but I was also tremendously excited.  I was thrilled at the idea that it could turn out beautiful.  I decided that I was going to try very very hard not to draw with my paint. I didn't want it to look like a colouring book picture that I had painted in.  I sketched out only the barest of detail where I wanted things to end up only as a guide.  I sketched in my portrait in vague detail so that I felt I had proportions right.
As I painted I started feeling really good.  I completed the sky, which I completely fell in love with, and got the background mostly completed as well.  I was on cloud nine and then I started in on the face.  Oh man!  I thought I was DOOMED!  I had plenty of trouble with shading things correctly.  Joel posed for some facial proportions, I took a picture of my ear, and in the end it took me holding my cell phone at arms length to take a picture of my own shoulder with the light behind me to understand why the shoulder I was having trouble with should be lighter than the rest of his skin.  Phew! Working on this portrait taught me so much about layering paint, blending acrylics, and light.  There were some dark moments.  At one particularly discouraging spot I call on my brother Eric.  I think I sent him this picture.

I told him how anxious I was feeling and how I was no nervous that I wasn't going to be able to rise to this challenge and give this as a present.  Eric was so awesome about it!  In a few short sentences he not only had me feeling calmed back down, but he left me feeling encouraged and able.  I set myself back to my task and from time to time Joel would check on me.  He suggested that the moon was not quite right, which was something that I had suspected as soon as I had placed those colours onto it.  It didn't really look like a moon in the present hues.  I think My favorite part to paint was the braided hair.  I was undecided for a while whether he would have double braids or a single large braid down his back.  I knew I didn't want to give him feathers because Little Duck is a very young man and might not have earned any yet.  As I painted on the scalp down to the nape I felt good about double braids.  I had the most fun layering in colours to look plaited.      
I finished the painting on December 23rd.  I had the whole week leading up to Christmas off and much of the painting had been done in that week.  I texted my brother in celebration and called Joel in to look at it .  I knew that it would make a good gift when Joel said he would miss it after it was gone.  I had wrestled with this painting, cursed it and finally I had fallen in love with it.  Little Duck looked calm, determined, a little sad.  That was just as I wanted him.  The sky was inspiring and the moon glowed.  The tree line led up to his heart like a machine readout of heartbeats and trailed behind him.  There is a lot of symbolism in the painting.  I wanted this painting to capture the moment Little Duck decides it the time to follow his father's order and run home to tell his tribe what has happened there.  I see it in the eyes... he's said his goodbye by whispering it to the wind to carry, and he is ready to run.

Christmas Eve arrived and I placed a bow around the painting and put it into my portfolio to transport it to Altorf.  I wanted to give this to my parents who have always been such a support to my art.  It was they who shared with me the story of the Grand Island Chippewa, and they who shared a beautiful vacation in the U.P. of Michigan.  I wanted them to have this special moment from the story as a thank you and because it was a moment that meant something to them.
So here he is:  Little Duck

This picture shows the painting in brighter light and a more straight on angle.    

This picture shows it at a slight angle but I like the colours better.