A Murder Most Fowl

"A Murder Most Fowl" (skewing Jacques-louis David's "The Death of Marat") - acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 16 x 20.  NFS

"I  haven't checked, but I highly suspect that chickens evolved from an egg-laying ancestor, which would mean that there were, in fact, eggs before there were chickens. Genius."
- Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The studio has gone to the birds.

Well, to the chickens, anyway.

​When you live with another artist, you might find yourself in a challenge to render a version of this, that or the other in  your own particular style in a sort of soft paint-off competition.  This time, the challenge was CHICKEN.

And since I only recently learned of "The Death of Marat", and was smitten with its beauty, it seemed only natural to place a fowl in the scene and skew Jacques-louis David with a wink (or a cluck?)

A Murder Most Fowl (skewing Jacques-louis David's "The Death of Marat")

Skewing, like painting self-portraits, is a really good habit for stretching your painterly muscles and dabbling in different color palettes and styles.  And this one, proudly hanging in the studio/gallery, is really something to crow about. :)

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​About the art:  beginning with a notanized photo of David's painting, roughing in the shapes with a chunky colored pencil and some wet brushes.  Adding a layer of yellow ochre to the lower half as an underpainting and keeping a limited color palette as David did in the original.  Using soft, watery washes to create shadows and highlights and resisting the urge to overly define.  

Cadmium red light and a sprayer bottle used to create evidence of a murder.  (I wouldn't turn my back on that rooster, though)