Tuesday, August 14, 2007

August 14 work in progress (includes nude)

Two very different things to post today....

But some random ramblings first. I got the check from the poultry auction today. Pathetic. Came out to $1 per bird after they took their commission. Needless to say I won't be going there again. It was lovely to get an extra hour of sleep and not spend an hour and a half driving, but I could have gotten probably at least three times that amount if I'd gone to Roseville instead. Poopy doo.

I discovered today, while running some errands in the old pickup (not my usual vehicle, though sadly probably more reliable than my Taurus these days...) that although the radio hasn't worked for about a year, the tape player still does. Go figure. There were some ancient Chris LeDoux tapes in the glove box so I drove around town like a real redneck... music blaring, windows down (no air conditioning). Ah, it brought back memories of junior high and high school, when those tapes were practically all my brother would play in his car when he drove me home from school... wedged in the backseat with his hunky cowboy friends. Oooh yeah. ;-)

I picked the last of the peaches and plums today. Gotta do something with them tomorrow before they all spoil. I shall miss them.

Okay, now on to art stuff..

Help me pick a color for this. I thought it would be fun to be kinda interactive with this one. Suggest anything. A real chicken color, a crazy impossible chicken color, a wild bird color, anything. I may or may not use anyone's suggestions, but I have drawn so many "real" chickens I just would rather do something different. If nobody comes up with something I like better (yes, I am picky!) then she shall be White Spangled Red.


And then there's this one, another practice piano key. It won't be perfect but I thought I'd show you the WIPs and entertain you anyway. This is based on a vintage photograph (early 1900s). Since this is evidently a popular subject for scrim I thought I'd better do some practice... haven't done figure drawing for a while.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what a white spangled red is, it may be similar to the UK speckled sussex colourway which is a rich dark mahogany ground colour, each feather tipped with a black spangle and a white spot. This is one of my favourite colours on a hen (a labour of love to draw though!).

Or my other suggestion would be an Andalusian colourway, a clear slate blue with black lacing, with quite broad lustrous black lacing on the neck hackle.

Katherine Plumer said...

Oh it's not a real color. ;-) At least, not around here.. It would be a dark red "bright mahogany bay" lol, with a white spangle on each feather, and probably a white tail.

But you are the second person to suggest blue. The other (on another blog) is not even a chicken person. But she suggested yellow/orange legs.. Hmm. It's really hard being a chicken snob because then I know that a Blue Old English would have slate legs, not yellow! Hmmmm. Blue Mottled perhaps. White Laced Blue...

Katherine Plumer said...

er, no, would that be bright reddish mahogany? Sorry, inside joke.

Anonymous said...

I have an Andalusian hen who is a lovely light denim blue with silvery grey neck hackles and lacing, not breed standard, but beautiful all the same.
Or the reverse of a blue laced Wyandotte would be nice, with blue as the ground colour and reddish bay lacing, or splashes, or spangles....... I'm thinking of loads of wonderful chicken combinations now!