Bald eagle

 At Lake Brighton, the best
photo I could manage
 with my cell phone :)

Post #200! I have been thinking about the bald eagle a lot recently. During my latest road trip to Burney Falls, we saw a bald eagle nest just above the falls, and then later saw the eagle circling Lake Brighton just down from the falls.  It also happens to be the mascot of the school that I work at.  The last time I drew an eagle (with pastel), it was a couple of years ago, just before I found out that I was coming to this school, and then I saw them that same summer at Lake Tahoe.  They just keep coming into my life. I'm thinking I should listen to what it is telling me:

When an eagle appears, you are on notice to be courageous and stretch your limits. Do not accept the status quo, but rather reach higher and become more than you believe you are capable of. Look at things from a new, higher perspective. 

Half dome revised

So I have taken my painting of Half Dome and have tried to "fix" some of the problems that I saw, mainly that Half Dome was not the main focus of the painting.
I started with a simple fix: cropping the distracting foreground out (not actually cutting the paper here, just electronically editing).

But then I took it a little further. To actually fix the foreground instead of just cropping it out, I darkened the foreground, and created some layers to draw your eye toward the cliffs. Since the color of the sky and Half Dome were so similar, I also decided to take the sky a little darker...ok, a lot darker, downright stormy. And what would you expect with a storm at Half Dome? Lightning, of course. Using a very fine brush to apply lumpy masking fluid is a challenge but I was able to get some fine lines to create the lightning.

At this point, I have not done anything to the cliffs (although the exposure of the photo made them look more yellow).

 Ok, it seemed like the lightning is a little too much, drawing focus away again, so let's take a little bit of it out but continue to darken the clouds a bit. Hmm, maybe too much?

At this point, I have over-worked my paper and will call it finished. Sometimes I just have to push my comfort zone and keep working a piece, but sometimes I have to know when a painting is finished. Either way, I have learned a few things in the process, so I think I will have to revisit this subject and paint Half Dome again soon.