Raven - Spirit Guide

Oh what a wonderful few days I have had, I have caught up on my sleep, I backed up my computer, sent all of my images for the Craft Boutique to my external hard drive - it took 3.5 hours, lol, I was a busy girl.  I have played, done some reading.  I have researched some classes online that I am looking at for 2014, cleared off my studio table, did some laundry.  Today, I will go find my suit cases and start packing for my departure on Thursday.  Yesterday I was in SketchBook Pro and not sure what I was doing, just getting more familiar with it, testing some of the brushes and playing with the Copic Colors.  I was not sure what this face was as I was in the midst of drawing it and then suddenly I realized it was a Spirit Guide for the Raven. Let me explain a little about my Spirit Guides, for many years I have created one or another as they come to me.  I am always amazed at the appropriateness of their arrival.  The Raven caught me totally by surprise and I have been joyous with its arrival, it is definitely something I will embrace.  The Raven really has a bad wrap, a lot of it due to one of my favorite authors Edgar Allen Poe, dark, ominous, evil but there are other sides that have light and merriment attached.  In American Indian Folk Lore, the Raven is know as a trickster, the bearer of light (he is credited with releasing the sun from imprisonment in a wonderful story), I will always choose the positive side of my Spirit Guides to embrace because I have the choice and because I believe that we are all energy and that we get back what we give out and I so much enjoy living in the positive spectrum.

I wanted to color with the Copic Markers by hand on this piece.  I wanted the background to be a gessoed book page and the gesso will not take the Copic Ink, so I took my book page, gessoed it and then distressed with Tim Holtz "Wild Honey" and "Vintage Photo" and scanned that in and printed it out, I then took my drawing and printed it on my background and then hand colored with the Copic Markers.  The feather is from the Silhouette Store, I did an under base if purple and lavendars and then did the feathering with a .001 micron pen, I did the highlights with gesso and tiny tiny water color brush.  The Raven is from my Halloween images.

Hope you enjoy your Sunday and go safely and happily into the new week, hugs