Walking Through the Valley with the Shadow of Death

Here's what the real painting turned out like. I ended up working off a very bad photo I took last week at the opening of Art Town of the 4th Street Marching Band. Death was just a guy on stilts, and the guy in the left corner an observer. Even though it was nothing like I had originally thought about, it ended up being closer to what was really going on inside my head about death and how life is a valley always overshadowed by death, and that's not always morbid, but can, at times, be extremely comforting.

Value Study for Walking Through the Valley

This is the value study I did for Walking Through the Valley with the Shadow of Death, which ended up being nothing like it. I used the study to attempt a painting, but the painting just never had the same impact as the drawing so I painted over the first start...something I seem to be doing a lot of these days.

The Blood of Life

Here's the third. I think I like it best so far. The kids at school liked it. They wanted to talk about it. I got kind of nervous talking religion, but it's one level of the art, so I did it anyway. Hopefully in an objective this is what I was trying to say tone rather than anything else.