Bill Needs
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Recent Additions
    • Portraits
    • Animals
    • Nature
    • Architecture
    • Scenes of Marietta/ Cobb
    • Travel
    • Minimalism
    • Abstract
    • Nautical
    • Spiritual
    • Videos
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Recent Additions
    • Portraits
    • Animals
    • Nature
    • Architecture
    • Scenes of Marietta/ Cobb
    • Travel
    • Minimalism
    • Abstract
    • Nautical
    • Spiritual
    • Videos
  • Blog

Pen & Ink Blog

Questions about Native Song

12/31/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
For three years, I feared drawing faces.   Then an artist/friend pushed me out of my comfort zone to investigate lessons from a unique art instructor.   Impressed by what I was told and saw,  I decided to commit.  I made the 16 hour drive to meet Maureen Killaby in  Tyler, Texas.

The subject, Nokia, Native Song, is a photograph of a young boy taken with permission during a tribal ceremony of one of Canada's "First Nations". 

Creating the background took nearly 5 hours.  The instruction lasted 6 days.  The investment of time and money was worth every minute and every penny.

I took some artistic liberties to maximize the apparent spiritual significance for this young man.  I prefer to believe he was celebrating a "coming of age" event, so important to link his community to it's heritage.

Remembering this lesson, it occurs to me that I also came of age while creating this portrait under the direction of my patient instructor. She developed my confidence and extended my own artistic technique beyond the comfort and ease of drawing houses and landscapes.

Now, reflecting on that lesson via "social media" (a vehicle also outside my comfort zone),  I'm attempting to extend my art and it's influence to a larger community with wishes for a Happy NEW Year.

Thank you, Maureen, for this lesson.  Check her website:  maureenkillaby.com.

2 Comments
Ron Ransom
12/31/2017 10:59:19 am

I’m glad you’re going a new direction. Don’t forget to massage your hand.

Reply
Bill Needs link
12/31/2017 11:10:52 am

Hah! Good advice Ron. When giving instruction, I also advise students to stand up, stretch, and get away from their creation and look at it from a distance. Kind of like massaging the eyeballs, eh?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Bill Needs

    Archives

    January 2024
    May 2023
    April 2023
    January 2022
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Categories

    All
    Welcome

    RSS Feed

© COPYRIGHT 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.