Whooping Crane 1

I just finished this sumi painting last week, and it is one of my final selections to enter in a sumi paintig contest which will start Nov. 15th.

I started out wanting to paint a more lackadaisical crane but soon realized it didn't suit my current mood at all, so I went back to basics. I looked at pictures and remembered what I knew about cranes. And I thought of a National Geographic episode that showed whooping cranes and remembered how heart-breakingly beautiful they are, and this is what evolved.

This is in essence my archetypal crane, the one that sort of lives in my head. If I imagine cranes, this or it's mirror image is pretty much exactly what's in my mind. So this crane is also me. I feel it's very me-ish, anyway ;)