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Browsing Tag

Hawaii

Turtle power

September 8, 2014

I’ve been drawing in my sketchbook a lot lately. It’s nice. My drawings are improving I think. I like just simple little red-line sketches in a book. They’re so easy and it’s less stressful than trying to make the time for a painting… not that I do many of those.

 

Tombow, col-erase, digi color washes

Plate Coral Maiden

September 4, 2014

It’s been a few since I’ve drawn a chubby mermaid, so here we go!

Done on real paper, with real markers, and real red pencil. Craaaazyyyy. I actually LOVE LOVE LOVE drawing in sketchbooks, it’s just that usually I am at my desk or laptop and photoshop means no messes.

Does anyone else have problems with finishing a sketchbook? I swear I have 40 just laying around randomly with only the first 3 pages filled in. Maybe I just like buying sketchbooks because it makes me think of potential drawings… and I just never get around to them.

ALRIGHT. Quit twisting my arm, I will fill one up this year.

xoxo
-Tracey

Hawaiʻi ʻŌʻō

August 13, 2014

While I was working on Disney’s Aulani I studied Hawaiian culture, ecology and geological formations of the islands. When you’re an artist and story teller it’s vitally important to understand your subject. While I am not Hawaiian, I very much put myself in the place of Kama‘aina (resident local). I became fascinated by native Hawaiian birds while working on designs for Hale Manu (house of birds) retail store. I ended up painting quite a few extinct Hawaiian birds for friends while I worked there (sadly there were several I didn’t photograph). The store itself is decorated with over 40 hand carved and painted wooden birds. The pieces of art hang from the ceiling and are perched on casework. Above the birds are 3 HUGE canvases painted with native Hawaiian flora, symbolizing the birds natural habitats. The coastal and sea birds in the store are set against the ocean, which you can see if you just look out the windows. It’s a very neat space and I hope if you’re in Oahu and see it, you’ll think about habitat conservation. In fact, if it’s still there, there is a hidden Mickey” bird poo behind the counter under one of the large birds. hehehe. Team clean kept scrubbing it off… probably because it legitimately does look like a bird poo.

This particular bird I painted- called the ʻŌʻō has been extinct since the mid-1930’s. The bird was hunted liberally by native Hawaiians for their plumage. Feathers were a huge part of Hawaiian ceremonial and cultural heritage. The ʻŌʻō’s plumage was used for ʻaʻahu aliʻi (robes), ʻahu ʻula (capes), and kāhili (feathered staffs) of Hawaiian nobility. If you look at this bird, while it’s fluffy yellow feathers are remarkable in color… they’re not in great quantity. It probably took a LOT of birds to make a cape. There were small differences to the species of ʻŌʻō on the islands of Hawaii. The one I painted above lived on the biggest island in the Hawaiian chain, Hawaiʻi. Though they were hunted extensively and this largely let to their extinction. It is also theorized that an avian malaria wiped out the remaining population. :(

6×6 acrylic and gold leaf on mansonite panel.