Jingle!

Today's painting is courtesy of Google, who chose to feature the Native American "Jingle Dress Dance" as its artwork today. The costumes were so colorful and the people dancing looked so joyful that I couldn't resist. If I had thought through how "itsy" was the detail on these dresses (not to mention the number and disposition of the metal ornaments), I might have decided to experience the video and then go on to paint something else! As it is, I got impatient waiting for paint to dry, so some of the detail isn't as precise as it was in life. (The woman on the left had a conch shell belt...)

The jingle made by the metal pieces clashing together as the women dance supposedly sounds like rainfall, and anyone in the vicinity in need of healing will apparently receive it by listening closely to the sounds generated by the dance. It's a lovely tradition.

My first dancer, on the right, ended up leaning a little too heavily to her right, while the second dancer is upright, so it becomes debatable exactly where the surface on which they are dancing should be; the detail was so intense on the two women that I purposely just did a single color vignette wash behind them, hoping the crookedness wouldn't be quite so apparent. Oh, well...

DAY 15: JINGLE

#30x30DirectWatercolor2019