[Art] American Bison as Totem

[moonvoice]

This one is not on hold, and is currently available for anyone who wants it.

I really like the sunset colours in this one, there is gold iridescent paint in the energy circles which capture the light every now and then and influence that.






$75 US / AUD
18.5 x 20.5cm (or 7.4 x 8 in)
illo's board, fineliner, aquarelle, pencil, metallic paint

Comments

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

*whistles* Wow, that looks almost like watercolors in a few places! You did especially well with the eye.

[sotepetsenu.livejournal.com]

Wow, his *face*, wow!

I'm sure this is rude an inappropriate, but you must be having insanely horrific flashbacks to be pumping out so much artwork with such insanely awesome detail and incredible quality pictures.

*luffs on you, and leaves luff marks on your pants*

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

you must be having insanely horrific flashbacks to be pumping out so much artwork with such insanely awesome detail and incredible quality pictures.

Man, you read me like a book. *rueful smile*
Anything to distract my brain right now. I'm going to have to stop soon though, this much art gives me a killer headache. Blah.

[firehauke.livejournal.com]

more hugs then.

[azhure.livejournal.com]

He is just gorgeous! How do you make an animal like that look so gentle? I *love* the colours.

[darakat-ewr.livejournal.com]

The power of the beast seems to oose out of the computer screen! This one must be totally awesome in real life!

[mirrorred-star.livejournal.com]

I love the sunset colours too. :)

[fannyfae]

That's my Totem and that is absolutely GORGEOUS. :)*stunned* Wow....

[aleia-kali.livejournal.com]

very powerful, very beautiful

[witchchild]

WOW. :)
And Bison doesn't get nearly enough love.

::Dies a Little:::

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

It's nose & face looks like velvet! OMFG!

Three cheers for the biggest, most charismatic North American mammal! I like the colors you've done for the background - it makes me imagine the swirling dust on the plains behind a herd of bison... and the circles are like little swirly sunsets.

(Why, why must I be broke?!)

Re: ::Dies a Little:::

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Heh yeah in real life the nose and stuff looks very touchable. It took a lot of layered colouring to pull that effect off but I'm glad it worked.

I'm happy with this piece, I don't always connect well with bison.

[scarletwildfire.livejournal.com]

You just keep pumping out awesomesauce artwork!


(If it were me I wouldn't have gotten through the first pics spirals without giving up and saying NO more!)

[jamminbison.livejournal.com]

*o*
He's beautiful~

The colors must look brilliant in real life.

I meant to ask this before I think, but, what do the circles mean/do?

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

The circles are just 'energy circles,' I guess. Almost like chakras, but for me, I feel they represent the feel or colour/s I most associate with the animal. It's why they can sometimes be a radically different colour to the rest of the piece.

And sometimes I cheat and the energy circles represent things like peacock tail 'eyes,' or setting suns. *blush*

[jamminbison.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand. I had a feeling they were something like that, but I wanted to confirm. :]

[vyxen.livejournal.com]

No sigil this time. May I ask why? I'm very curious about the different aspects of your pictures.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Depends on the animal, the size of the animal (I really couldn't fit one in Winter Wren!) and how close a connection I have with the animal.

Bison is not, and has never been a totem or guide of mine. I've never felt any inclination to work with Bison before and may never again. So the connection I get with Bison is looser and less 'strong' than other animals. Plus I don't think he really wanted to give his sigil to someone who had that loose connection (some animals don't mind). In that sense, nothing came through. I'm just glad the colours came through strongly, otherwise this would have been a really difficult piece to do.

[sylvertongue.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's so beautiful. I always think, "Wow!" at your artwork, but every so often one makes me ache. Bison is one of them.

In your tradition, is Bison about sacrifice?

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Hmm, in my tradition Bison isn't really mentioned at all, he's not really a part of the region in the same way that Reindeer is.

But in my practices, I guess (I've been branching away from my tradition a bit lately), I don't see Bison as only sacrifice because I know it's a term coined by Jamie Sams (who did the Medicine Cards) and I feel that... for me personally - it tends to skip past a lot of the meanings that Bison could give for Bison's sake. The concept of sacrifice when attached to Bison is a 'human + Bison meaning,' but Bison without human interference tends not to represent this at all; especially as their numbers are recovering and they no longer even represent species sacrifice for the sake of humans.

I'm rambling a lot. Basically I think it's complex and that for me, Bison would have a lot of other meanings. Heh.

[jamminbison.livejournal.com]

I know your question was directed at moonvoice, but I've started to work closely with Bison [after being a real pansy about it for a long time] and find that Bison is more about community sacrifice than individual sacrifice. Taking a hit for the team, sort of thing.

He seems to have a lot of lessons, really forceful with me for whatever reason, but I think it really depends on what he feels like teaching the person, I believe. :]

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

I like the sense of the form of the skull beneath the skin, it looks really sculpted.

[heathwitch.livejournal.com]

Bloody hell. I love the fur on that! :)

[paleo.livejournal.com]

Wowie! I musta missed this one.
There was a herd of bison at Wolf Park when I interned there. They were 100% more scary than the wolves. The most terrifying thing I had to do at th Park was ride in the back of a pickup while the drivers tried to wrangle the females from the bull for vet checkup. Seeing the male come charging after the truck was like...*gulp*.