Black Tail Rattlesnake & Orry Martin

First feather I've painted in a LONG time.  While stalking around Facebook, I came across Orry Martin: Texas Snake Hunter.  Do you know how difficult it is to find excellent reference images for snakes?  I know there is a lot of fear surrounding them, but I've never seen so many blurred photos from a distance than when trying to look for snakes.  There's also a large amount of images where they are striking or stretching...which is just unappealing as a painting.  I was excited for several reasons as I was looking over his page, the first being that he had tons of beautiful photos from a lot of venomous species.

The second is that he is taking on a huge mission to stop the way rattlesnake round ups are done.  I will be the first to say I have a love for snakes.  I have two at home, and have little issue picking up the non-venomous ones outside.  But these round ups catch a large number of rattlesnakes, rip their fangs out, stitch their mouth shut, and then use them for sick entertainment.  Below is an important video on why these are something to be stopped made by Orry in his quest to spread the word.

 So Orry is having a fundraiser for a round up where no wild snakes are harmed!  Why is this important? Other than the fact they are absolutely amazing animals, they are a vital part to nature.  You don't have to like them, but there's no denying how they help keep nature in balance just by what their diet consists of.  He's even having giveaway's on his Facebook page (link is above) every month as he tries to raise the funds to be able to do this.

 After getting over my excitement, I sent an inquiry as to using his lovely photos as future reference images for my work.  I hadn't painted in a while, but I thought this would be the perfect inspiration.

I quickly got the go-ahead and compliments on my work.  There was a half-joking comment made about a free sample, and while I don't normally do that kind of thing, I figured this is a wonderful cause and anything I could do to help get the word out and support is well worth it.

So I chose a headshot of a Northern Blacktail Rattlesnake, dusted off my brushes (metaphorically, I promise they are actually well taken care of) and went to work.

Snakes are a bit difficult to get right because of the number of scales, I can't just smoosh paint and hope it works out alright.  But I feel it turned out beautifully!  I'm looking forward to sharing more in the future!  In the mean time...go check out those links above and help support Orry Martin and the rattlesnakes!

He's Such A Happy Copperhead

I've always loved snakes.  I think they are beautiful and amazing creatures, whether they are venomous or big enough to swallow a five year old.  We have our share of poisonous snakes here on the island, mostly water moccasins and copperheads. I've seen them both, but not very often, and each time, they just wanted to go about their business.  None of them wanted to "run me down" and attack, they said hello and went about their merry way.  Then again, I didn't really startle them by screaming and jumping around either....

I think I've only gained some fear over the years from everyone else freaking out about them and how dangerous they are.  I recall there was a time up in North Park in western Pennsylvania, I was having a picnic with a few friends.  There was a tiny garter snake that I picked up and held.  He was so small he curled up in my palm.  He sat there calmly until one of the guys, trying to be macho, went to poke it.  The snake pulled away from him abruptly and wouldn't calm down again.  So back into the grass he went.

Then I noticed what looked like a tiny head moving in zig-zags across the water.  My first thought was perhaps it was a turtle.  As it came closer, I realized that it had trailing zig-zags behind it....snake!  It swam right towards us, and sat partially out of the water.  None of us moved for a minute, it was a fairly large one, maybe about 5 feet long.  I wasn't familiar with the pattern, and couldn't see it's eyes, so I didn't want to agitate it.  I decided to take a few steps towards it, slowly.  It continued to look at me, staying still.  I got about a foot and a half away from it, and it came a little closer to close the distance by another half foot...slowly.  I never felt threatened by it, I just wanted to say hello.  I guess the guys wouldn't be outdone by a girl, so one decided to jump off the table from which they were standing towards the snake.  (I should note this was the same guy that poked at the baby garter).  The snake raised its head for a second and then shot off in the opposite direction.  It's been a long time, and I'm still not completely sure what kind of snake it was.  It could have been a northern water snake, but I remember it looking more like a copperhead.  I only found out what a copperhead looked like much later, but that experience changed the way I thought of poisonous snakes.

Some of the First

I started painting feathers about two years ago.  It's been a while, so I can't remember all the details of how it came to be that my paintings ended up on feathers, I recall the important bits and pieces.

It was a slow day working at the Native American Museum in Frisco, NC.  I might have been sketching something, or I might have just been talking about art to one of our visitors...but one way or another, it was asked if I'd ever painted on a feather.  At that exact moment of the conversation, I thought that the woman had to be at least half nuts.  I was comfortable with painting and pencil renderings...but on a feather?  I was aware it was done, we have a lovely piece in the museum exhibit, and it completely blew me away.  So sure...it could be done...but by other people.  At least that was my first thought.

Very small horse head

I had some cheap acrylic paint at home, and there were some feathers lying around; so I figured why not.  The brushes weren't as small as I'd have liked, and the paint was difficult to make opaque, but I had my first few steps.

A horse was easy to do, at least that was my first thought.  OH...I was wrong, but it was a nice thought.  It ended up not turning out all too bad.  But I learned very quickly why we do not spray fixitive over our feathers...as there is a white mist over the down now and the colors are a bit faded.

Teeny tiny butterfly

The butterfly was also kind of easy once I got the colors down.  They don't really take too much detail until they get bigger, and you have to worry about all the veining in the wings.

It's still hard to get the highlights in the wings and the body, but all and all, not too bad.

Chipmunk

At the time I was starting these, Branden and I had a friend living down on the island with us who went by the name Many Chipmunk.  He had helped out so much with the museum when we were getting ready for our Powwow, that I wanted to see if I could do something special for him.

I did a few, unfortunately, I didn't think to take many photos of my early works.  I still have a few of them left, and they're lovely reminders.  I can't say I work on the teeny tiny ones all to much anymore, but that comes out of more frustration than anything.

Painting of Trypphinia, my snake

I got frustrated very early on, and soon got some better paints.  The yellow posed the most frustration, and life went on much more smoothly when I had a yellow that kept it's color instead of turning translucent.

As soon as I got a decent yellow, I was compelled to do a portrait of my california king snake, Trypphinia.  While she refused to hold still, I was able to take a photo to go off of at my leisure.  The painting of Trypphinia was sold in the museum, along with a few others that I've done.