Inspired...but Still Struggling with "How"

Remember this sketch from a ways back?

A line of doves, jostling for position on the rock wall behind our house, made me laugh. They looked like a bunch of western dancers with red feet! I did a real quickie sketch with a ball point pen on the back of an envelope!

Earlier this week I came across the sketch and wondered what I could do with it. The little watercolor sketch on drawing paper, below, was my first stab.

This one seems funnier, with the three light colored doves in a line and a darker dove showing off in front of them. But I'm not convinced yet it's the right approach. Any suggestions from my blog followers would be welcome!

I still feel inspired by the original idea. This is just proof that inspiration alone isn't enough. We need the tools to express our emotional responses. Composition, technique, color theory...those are the artist's tools of expression.

A Fine Day for Flying

Where does inspiration come from? I think we've pretty much established that it comes from emotion. So how did these two "buzzards" engender emotion and spark a painting? I took a photo of two turkey vultures sitting near a dumpster outside a restaurant in Terlingua, Texas. Although we were looking for a place to eat breakfast, I swore I couldn't eat THERE. Bill and I collapsed into giggles. From there, the picture of the "buzzards" became funny. Six years later, I decided to paint them - with a twist. I thought it would be funny to have one "buzzard" looking at the viewer. I changed their postures and body proportions a bit to make them funnier. Judge for yourself.

"Carl and Dewey"