Shaman Staff Walking Stick--Part 16

Rejected: looked like tin soldiers.

Before I get started, I wanted to note something for regular readers.  Yesterday we had a winter storm pass through.  Mostly it was a wind event, with a little rain and some snow flurries.  It reminded me that I should mention that if I have not posted for a few days that it is possible that our electricity is out.  In bad storms, we have been without electricity for as much as ten days.  If you don't see a post for several days, it could be that I am unable to use my computer or access the internet.  Please keep checking back if you don't see a post on a regular day.  I will be back online as soon as I am able.

Rejected simplified designs.

 

Now, on to today's subject.  I have been doing a good deal of sketching this week.  I think I have finally settled on the figures to be put on the walking stick.  Before I show you the ones that made the cut, I thought it might be interesting and instructive to see what sketches did not work.  Most of the time people see a finished work of art and don't really understand the amount of work that went on behind the scenes to bring the work to completion.  It is not just a matter of going with the first idea you come up with.  Sometimes what you think you want to put into the piece just does not work.

Another rejected idea.

In the case of this walking stick, I had envisioned that the ancestors would be portrayed in a style similar to carved statues and panes similar to some I had seen while visiting Hawaii.  The statues were intricately carved with spirals, wavy lines, and patterns.  Carved panels showed stacks of humans, similar to how Pacific Northwest Totem Poles are stacked.  For many hours of sketching, I was really stuck on the idea that the figures should look like that.  Unfortunately, I was not able to bring it off.  The size that the figures needed to be to fit on the walking stick was just too small to support that type of art.  The drawings were just too busy.  Even after I simplified the designs, it still was not working.  The simplified drawings looked more like toy tin soldiers than anything else.  Worse yet, the simple faces looked cartoonish.  There is only so much detail that you can sketch on a figure that is two and a half to three inches tall; and even less you can add with a wood burning tool on a figure that size. 

 So after working with a considerable number of sketches, I finally realized that I had to think something else.

Its really amazing what happens when you let go of what you want to happen on a piece and allow the piece to (metaphorically) speak to you.  When you let go of the attachment to a certain idea, new ideas and images can come to the forefront of your thoughts.  Until you let go, these ideas are repressed and cannot be seen by the minds eye.  Many times, the ideas are better than the one you had to begin with.  That is what happened here.  The new sketches seemed to work much better with the art work that is already on the stick. 

Next blog post:  the sketches that worked.