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windfalcon — Thesis - Bald Eagle
Published: 2009-06-09 19:19:50 +0000 UTC; Views: 4811; Favourites: 188; Downloads: 139
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Description
This is the seventh in a series of ten paintings for my thesis, An Illustrative Exploration of Birds of Prey in History and Culture. This is a look at the bald eagle in Native American beliefs.Both eagles native to North America (the golden and bald) were revered by many tribes. Since I already explored the golden eagle in Mongolian culture, I decided to explore the place of the bald eagle in Native American culture.
This eagle was especially respected in the Pacific Northwest, where fish was an important food source both for people and eagles. The figure of the bald eagle appears on carvings, sculptures, masks, and other works of art. I portrayed it here with a salmon, which is an important food source.
Watercolor on cold-press Arches, 10 X 13 inches
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Comments: 25
Beautiful work! 
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Is it alright if I use this thesis as an reference image to practice drawing an eagle?
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This is truly beautiful!
The coloring is amazing, so life-like!
Eagles are important to my tribe's culture, I simply love them
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Balds are nasty thieving meanyheads. Highly overrated. Franklin was right, the national bird should be the turkey, they at least honor family and unity and don't get most of their food by stealing it!
Hee hee hee!
s'true.
Beautiful painting though, I love how you got the lighter edging of the feathers. I always slop those up, no matter the media.
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I'm glad you too know the truth about bald eagles! 
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One of my favorite birds of all. The Bald Eagle! With one of his favorite foods the salmon or is that a trout? The scenary looks similar to areas around the inside passage of Alaska and around Puget Sound in Washington state. Excellent job on this!
Greylight S.
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It's a salmon, as mentioned in the description.
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You're welcome!
We get lots of salmon up here. King, pink, and sockeye.
Greylight S.
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Makes sense to portray with a salmon, that in particular was a critical food source for both the people and the eagles (not to mention the bears lol).
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Excellent. And we're about to head for the great Pacific northwest. (Portland to Crater Lake.)
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Have fun! Crater Lake is beautiful.
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thanks! I'm SOOOOO looking forward to it.
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There's something almost quizzical in the bird's expression, something not many artists choose to portray in this bold and fierce predator. Very nice to see a different facet of this symbolic raptor.
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Thank you! I'm glad you saw something more than the 'bold, proud, patriotic' stare too many artists seem to give their bald eagles. Frankly. I think they all look the same. There's no reason the feature list of a bald eagle can't include 'curious'.
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wow, that's just amazing.
the details are stunning, and I really like the colors. they're not too bright, and there's so many different greens. nice work!
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