Crows Feat

Still workin' on it, but I'm taking another break to draw a graphic logo for a friend's youth group.

Why, you ask, is it taking me so long to paint such a simple (...and small) picture?

Because where most painters have oodles and oodles of tubes and cakes and tubs and buckets and bottles of paint, with every color of the rainbow and the dirt, I have only 5 colors: black, white, red, blue, and yellow. Therefore, before I can put brush to paper (or canvas, linen, wood, tile, etc.) I have to mix up the colors I want first. And since I have a very small pallet, I usually only mix enough colors for a couples areas of the painting at a time; Usually, I pick an object, find the right color (this is kind of like playing with mud sometimes- add water, stir, add more dirt, trying to find the perfect blend) then break it off into several dishes to lighten, darken, or mix with another color for highlights, shadows, and reflections.

So in between sessions, I stare at the thing for a while trying to decide where to go next and how I want to approach an area of the painting.