Jeffrey Jones -- Winged Figure with Beak

This one is sort of a commission, but not quite. I'd been toying with some drawings of a winged figure with a beak. The wings were too small for the weight of the figure and the beak gradually turned into something with teeth. I can't quite grasp the meaning entirely, but it has something to do with my father's death in January 2005. I was having trouble getting the idea to gain any traction, so I contacted Jeffrey about doing a commission of it. She said that she wasn't doing any commissions, but liked the image I was talking about and wanted to see some sketches. So that was that. Or was it? I was still working on the idea myself and as I got closer to what I wanted, I shot scans to Jeffrey. She asked that I stopped sending scans after a while, as she was working on a painting of the piece. Lo and behold, a few weeks later, Jeffrey lets me know that she finished the piece, which I promptly inquired about purchasing! The whole process was pretty fascinating to me, as we were working up a similar idea at the same time. In the end, Jeffrey managed to gain a weight of the figure that I just couldn't put my finger on. I'm very, very happy with the results.

Below are a couple of the images from my sketchbook. I've drawn dozens and dozens of these winged, beaked figures.