"Iona Eden" by Kathleen Hardy

Hi, Kathleen! A lovely piece! I wouldn't say that the foot is too long: more that the toes need definition. Usually the "Big toe" rises up at the tip, and is thicker than the other toes. The other 4 toes point to the floor. Also the width of the foot near the toes may be a bit truncated; in profile a foot is wedge shaped--thick at the ankle, narrow at the toes--which you have drawn fine. But from a top view, the wedge is reversed--wide at the toes' knuckles, narrow at the ankle--so give that foot its width. Finally, if you add a "pool" of white sleeve over the leg/knee, you'll help alleviate the "skinny" arm. Nicely done, fab color scheme--worth the doing, K!
-syr

Hey! It's a picture of a woman that doesn't happen to be young and white. Good job. I love the color of the paper you used, it is very rich.

Hey! The feet are not to long! My feet are big too! At least some people draw what is not perfect little dainty feet and all that. Sorry I am ranting. I love this piece of work though! Simply amazing!

Me likes, me likes alot! she looks so, wise, I likes! *sigh* wish I could draw like you!

Alright, the picture is wonderful. And the toe thing doesnt' bother me at all. But what does bother me is the title, actually. Indians are from India, and Native Americans are from America. (This is being said because a VERY strong portion of my heritage is Native Amercian, namely 100%...) So, if there's any way you could change it...?

Kathleen Hardy replies: "I'm of Native American heritage, too. This picture is actually a mix of cultures, (notice the Scottish tartan wrap) based on my own. I usually don't think much about titles when I'm working, the visual is much more important to me than the title, with the result that most of my titles are "working" titles rather than anything really reflective of the piece.For this piece, the title is one of those "working" titles, not really reflective of the finished piece--it also doesn't include the Celtic part of my heritage. So, while "Indian Butterfly" may not be a great title, neither is "Scottish-Native American Butterfly".I'm not quite as offended by the term "Indian", though I much prefer it to be "American Indian", (living in a heavily Indian -from India- neighborhood, I definitely hear your complaint about the term, and it gets very confusing around here) but I hear so many people of Native blood refer to themselves as "Indian", specifically, their tribal distinction followed by the word "Indian" that the term doesn't offend me.That being said, I am happy to have input on a different title for this peice. Like I said, the working title is really little more than a substitute for "Untitled". In the meantime, I'm happy to change the title to "Untitled" until we can come up with another more suitable name for this piece, that, hopefully, more accurately reflects this piece."

After much thought on what would more appropriately reflect the spirit of this piece, brought up by Tibby, I have decided to rename this piece "Iona Eden".

Beautiful! I just recently found out that I'm 75% Native American. I have Cherokee (50%) and Blackfoot (25%) in me.

Kathleen,
My name is Iona Eden - My birth name, first & last - I’ve never met another Iona Eden. I am from Scotland (no Indian), live in CT, USA now. Just wanted to say "Hi"
Iona.
PS, I am an artist too - but not of people....

I’m sorry - but I don’t see any Tartan wrap - looks like an American Indian blanket to me. Could be my glasses. I love your Native American fairies. When I was a child Burl Ives (on radio) told a story of Indian fairies - very, very little people living in the banks of streams. Had almost forgotten.