About the Painting | Crow's Passage

In the quiet wilderness, with only the echos of ravens and crows, their calls and beckons are the voice of this land.

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Crow's Passage

This painting is a little less colourful than what I usually create, but I felt the desire to honour the greyness of the day and the dull-coloured landscape of the time of year (February-March) that inspired this painting.  The day that I started painting this was rainy also, so I was in the mood for a more neutral colour palette.

I usually enjoy making artwork that is light and has happy and exaggerated colours, and I would consider that to be a core part of my brand, but every now and then it is nice to explore and do something a bit different. I have read advice for artists that states that they should stick closely to a specific niche/style/subject -- but I've always struggled with that notion because I love so many different things and I couldn't imagine only painting within a limited niche. Maybe that's a pitfall for my art career, but I hope those who enjoy my art will understand that I need some variety and exploration with it.

I'm pleased with how this painting turned out; however, I did make a few rookie mistakes... one being that I didn't plan my composition well enough and ended up with the grass-line right in the middle of the page (which is practically a composition sin) and because of that I had to crop the top of the painting to make the composition a bit more pleasing.

I used to treat my paintings as one-time-takes that would hopefully turn out good or otherwise them, and the idea/inspiration behind them, would be abandoned by me. Now, I treat my paintings as more of a stepping stone, a taking-off place and I can always try to paint them again if I need to, and it will (regardless of how great or bad they may be) propel me towards growth, knowledge and better paintings.

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Photo of the scene that inspired the painting:

This is the scene that was my inspiration. It was a very foggy day. The clouds were heavy with moisture and the air was starting to warm up after a long cold winter. Not much colour, but interesting shapes and contrasts. This photo was taken in the end of winter when we start to see the very first signs of spring: warmer temperatures, moisture filled air, moody skies, and the return of crows. Crows are one of the first migrating bird to show up at the end of winter - that's in part why I named this painting 'Crow's Passage'.

The initial idea sketch:

I made this little sketch back in April. I like the shapes of the trees and the feeling of distance in this sketch.

Some close-ups:

My birds originally looked like floating moustaches... LOL! So I had to adjust their shape a little to look less like moustaches and more like birds.

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I tried to add some interest and depth by adding foreground and background trees along with having both alive and dead trees. I actually hadn't put live and dead trees in the same painting before. I used negative painting to carve out some of the paler dead spruce trees that were in the foreground along with painting some of them with gouache.

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I chose to depict the foreground reeds by negatively painting around them and then leaving them as the white of the paper. I really like how it looks! I feel like it gives just the right amount of visual information while still being clean and simple.

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That's all for now! Thank you for stoping by!

You can find me on instagram @art.by.cheyenne and on Facebook @Art by Cheyenne

Until next time,

- Cheyenne