Something different

Elephants on Granite?

   I have put aside the graphite pencils for colored pencils and I have traded my paper for rock this time. It has been bothering me that as much as I like the drawings and paintings I create they are not unique, and they easily get lost in the vast sea of great art out there in the world. That sameness leaves me wondering why I keep doing it, 

and that sameness leaves me feeling unmotivated to create more of the same. 

So I begin a pursuit of something different, something unique. I have been using 

river rock as a canvas for some time with waterslide decals made from my drawings, but that too has become repetitive, un challenging and again, more of the same. I have seen a lot of artists who paint animals on rocks, they cover the whole rock with paint and make it look like an animal. The qualities that make me pick up a particular rock are color,  pattern, texture, and shape and the last thing I want to do is hide them under a layer of paint. So with my first attempt I have chosen a rather large 8" wide, 7" deep and 5" high piece of what I believe to be granite, and weighs in at approximately 13lbs. I used colored pencil to enhance the rusty color of the rock behind the elephants and incorporated the natural pattern in the rock with the details in the elephants. Over all I am very satisfied with this first attempt at something different and I have several more ideas that I can't wait to get started on !