Not too long ago I bought a BEAUTIFUL book of photographs by Edward S. Curtis called Visions of the First Americans. It's filled with page after page of sepia toned portraits from the 1800's of men and women from tribes all over North America. One image of a Crow medicine man wearing a headdress made from a gutted bird really caught my attention. I have a few portrait commissions on the docket and thought that working from some of this powerful reference would help get my chops up.

I was given a dreamy new Raphael Kolinsky sable watercolor brush for my birthday (thanks Aunt Patty!) and I was SO thrilled to try it out on this painting. I'm tempted to toss every other brush I own. Putting down a wash with this #12 round is so effortless, it has changed everything!