Inktober 9

I’ve missed a couple of days, but I’m still doing better than expected. Here’s yesterday’s ink: a crow with sage leaves and flowers.

crow with sage flowers/leaves

Crows represent wisdom in a lot of cultures, not just death. In fact, it’s more of a spiritual type of wisdom because of their association with death. They’re intelligent and are often guides between this world and the next. They’re also creators as often as they are tricksters.

I’ve always liked crows and ravens because of their intelligence, but now on this little project of mine, I’m really trying to do some more research on their symbolism, especially among Native American cultures. Three of my characters in this little project you’ve been seeing WIP have bird. . . symbols? Guides? I’m not sure what to call them yet, but I associate certain birds with them. And since I love drawing flowers, I also try to apply their traditional meanings. So sage is for wisdom, which I think actually works out well in this case. A lot of the story takes place in a futuristic American West and I associate sage with the southwest (even though sage and sagebrush are not the same thing).With any luck, next up you’ll see an owl (death) and an eagle (strength).