Day 13 Powder Sgrafitto Drawing Challenge - Gnarly Shark

Day 13 Challenge is to draw a really gnarly looking shark.

Like this

I opted to attempt to draw the less scary looking one...

Not so much because of fear but in an effort to quell negativity.  To wrap my mind around this attempt I tried to remember that this magnificent creature is my spirit animal... my 'Amakua... determined by Hawaiian folklore from a belief system which named the shark as one of my family's ancestral deity. Before missionaries brought the Christian religion to Hawaii, religion was intimately entwined with nature and each family had their own 'amkua who could be called upon for protection, support and spiritual comfort.  I was always told that sharks were our cousins.  Our protectors.

I found this in a quirky little website:

“If Shark has come swimming by you today;

He is reminding you that opportunities in life are abundant – however you must move forward in order to create the opportunity. By exploring the world around you and the emotions within yourself you will be shown new ways and be presented with abundant opportunities. The universe can be so much larger for you if you simply stop waiting. Do something – anything to stir up the energy and create motion with in yourself.” 

http://spirit-animals.com/shark/

Here is my tribute to my 'amakua

I hope I did him justice.

The whole point of this assignment was to learn about contrast, texture and form.  I won't quit my day job just yet, but I think this is respectable.  I couldn't quite figure out how not to be too heavy handed with the powder.  Tools used were the basic ones... tiny sifter, business card, fingers and occasionally the flat end of the chopstick.  I wound up covering my pointer finger with a small strip of the card and just sort of mashed the powder around to get the shadowing.  It isn't what my mind's eye envisioned, but perhaps with practice...