Covering my Tracks

[chantico]

We have a hawk or falcon coming by for visits in the trees behind our house. He's pretty magnificent; grey plumage, spotted chest, maybe 2-3 feet tall. Next time he comes by, I'm going to try and take a picture of him. Mostly what he does is perch up on the bigger branches to rend his prey. I'm not sure if I should fill my birdfeeder, as I would feel rather like I was tricking all the pretty birdies into showing up at a buffet simply to *be* a buffet. We saw him there eating something, but realized it wasn't a fluke when a couple of days agao, he dropped a pigeon head and torso on out back porch. A friendly gift from a neighbor, perhaps.

That cats, of course, are not outside, though Steve keeps peering out the window and meowing, giving us that look like "Mom mom mom let me out mom I can take him, I can take him moooooom!"

Dealing well with Winter this year, at least so far. Mid january is really when it goes all to hell (and to be fair, today was a bad day for crushing anxiety and the desire to set the world aflame.)

New painting:


And to reiterate, I'm also trying to help out at help_haiti by offering three commissions for auction, so head over there and bid if you want to give money and recieve something cool in return. Even if art isn't your thing, there's plenty of other awesomeness at the community, from jewelry to writings. Go forth and help.

Comments

[sarcastibich.livejournal.com]

I like the painting, and I'm glad the winter isn't getting to you too badly. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Is the painting one of the Muses? What is it for?

[tooth-and-claw.livejournal.com]

It's actually for the game Exalted-- a fan picture, really. Originally it was what my character looked likew in a past incarnation, before I knew she didn't have one. Then it was just prettiness.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I very much like the way it evokes religious icons, especially Byzantine ones -- the upraised hand with one finger folded down, and its surrounding halo+writing.

I'm not wild about the bare-breasted aspect, but I think it's because I like the waist cinch so much, and the two feel unbalanced together somehow. Maybe it's because the waist cinch looks heavy (gold or gilded leather or something), so it ends up weighing down the lightness of the upper body. Or it might be that the intricacy of the cinch demands my attention, but so do the breasts (and for that matter the hand), and so I end up not being sure where my eye is supposed to focus.

[tooth-and-claw.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the critique! I wasn't sure about the breasts, myself . . . I went back and forth on covering them vs. not covering them several times. In the end, I think both looked distraction (which means the composition is probably off overall).

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you don't mind me critiquing; it occurred to me after I posted that you might not be looking for feedback of that sort.

[tooth-and-claw.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's been so long since I got a proper critique. I miss them terribly. Fire away.

[oddsboy.livejournal.com]

1) The falcon thing is pretty neat. I'm assuming with your love of the visceral watching something rend something else is pretty cool. If so, congrats! And it's like a lesson in what animal anatomy *shouldn't* do.

2) Sending ya good thoughts for January. I feel you on the anxiety thing. I don't have a specific time of year, but trying to fight the tides in one's heads is something I've been familiar with since I was a kid.

3) Pretty piccy. I think I commented on this when you posted it on FB. And yeah, the waist cinch thingy is pretty neat.

-Crow

[coyotewatches.livejournal.com]

Here I go again...

Gray plummage and spotted chest? I'm gonna guess that you're looking at a Sharp Shinned Hawk or a Cooper's Hawk. They are hard to tell apart. The Cooper's Hawk is larger and the Sharp Shinned is about the size of a dove, maybe larger. Both will definitely hang out around bird feeders.

Seriously doubt it's a red-tailed since they're mainly open air birds where the Coopers and Sharp Shinned stick to the woods and, well, do the things you're describing them doing. :D

Get some pics up if you get a chance

[tooth-and-claw.livejournal.com]

Gotta be a Cooper's then, becasue this fellow is about 2 feet tall. Saw him swooping around today, but didn't get my camera in time. Curses.