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| I'll Never Be Your Beast of Burden |
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| The Singing Camels |
Camels and turkeys and ducks, also one of my favorite critters, actually have a lot in common. They are irascible and walk funny. Like some of my favorite people.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
How to Paint Obstinate Smelly Hairy Beast of Burden
One of my very early attempts at brush painting was this image, based on a black and white photograph from a very old book on China.
Except for one person who thought it was a turkey, (who probably never has seen either a real camel or a turkey) most people like the painting very much. And actually, I like it a lot too, the camel and the coolie have a strange relationship, something like Bette Midler and Mick Jagger (click the caption link). Although now I look at it and see it is still very western watercolor style, not the technique taught in my new manual, "How to Paint Lifelike Camel," in Chinese, acquired via eBay from Shandong. I was working from the manual today, and showed the Wizard some preliminary camel studies.
"They don't look like camels," he said. Then I showed him the manual. "They don't look like camels, either," he said. "But they don't look like turkeys." But I sorta think they do.
Camels and turkeys and ducks, also one of my favorite critters, actually have a lot in common. They are irascible and walk funny. Like some of my favorite people.
Camels and turkeys and ducks, also one of my favorite critters, actually have a lot in common. They are irascible and walk funny. Like some of my favorite people.
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8 comments:
Aha! The famous feathered camel...
You know what?
It does look like a turkey. Well, a turkey rooster. It's the burden on its back, like the extended tail feathers of a bolshy rooster.
I know. There is a group of wild turkeys that forage by the side of my road. The rooster sticks its tail up and charges me while I feed its clan, scrambling up my back and whacking me with its wings, while I dutifully ignore it.
But the good news is: it also looks very much like a camel. A very well executed one.
Yes; you're not-half bad when it comes to rendering watercolors.
Well done.
Haha:) Forgot to add this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHINESE-PAINTING-BOOK-PAINT-LIFELIKE-CAMEL-/330623635059?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible
So it's true. Amazing!
I also forgot to say how much I like the frog in front of the turkey. It is a frog, isn't it?
Yes, it's Shifu Grenouille Chan...
And yes, that's the book...you can get one for yourself!
I like the painting. The smirk on the camel is telling us that we are fools for thinking that we know. The camel is the guy who knows. And he/she is not having any of our folly. I am the tao, and you are just towing along. Haha!
@OM--Thanks---I think I brought something to the image that wasn't in the photograph I was working from. I'd walk a mile with a camel.
Cool painting! The kind that really does look like there are many interesting stories behind it. :)
@YTSL
With some significant tine between now and when I did it, I can see it a little more objectively now. It does have life, some motion, and a relationship between the subjects. If I thought I could duplicate the images, it would make illustrations for some children's book. Conversations between the beast, Zhou Ke Mao, and his friend, Grenouille Chan Shifu. It's coming to me!
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