Ideas to finish the Owl

Here is what the owl looked like when I finished the last bit of work. I was happy with it, but I wanted more softness around the beak and eyes. 

The first thing I did was lift and soften paint around the eyes with a lifting brush. I lifted some of the white across the right (to me) side of the nose and eye to indicate the bone line in that area.

Then I put a light wash of the blue and purple colors in that large white area above the beak and salted it with POPCORN salt, which gives a very soft effect. 

I added a dark ridge of feathers along the left side. I darkened under the eye to the right of the page, still using the 3 colors I started with. (purple, turquoise, and quin burnt scarlet)

I began to add some black and dark browns to the feathers on the forehead and other places I felt needed it. I began to strengthen the color around the white feathers on the eye left on the page.

I also began to paint some darks beneath his chest feathers. 

left eye detail

head feathers detail

My background was white, but I wanted to demonstrate how to make corrections, especially in the shape of the figure, with a dark background. So I mixed a black. I wet a few inches at a time, being careful around the outside shape. I painted in black a few inches at a time, and with a detail brush, pulled the dark paint into the sides of the owl to create whiskery feathers. I worked around the shape a little at a time. 

When everything was dry, I used a tattoo needle - you can use a craft knife/razor blade -- to scratch in feathers along the eye. 

I ran a wet brush across the body to soften some of the feathers. Then I added some darks. Also note that I added tiny brush strokes around this left eye to darken the feathers there. I used white pastel to reclaim some of my white feathers.

Here they are side by side. 

Below, you can see how I used black pastel to get really dark around the background. I also used a little white pastel to bring out some

white feathers in the body, and some black to some of the feather tips.

Below I did the owl (what, again?) only this time on gesso. I applied a coat of gesso to paper, then for texture, I crinkled some plastic wrap, set it on the wet gesso, then pulled it up again and let the gesso dry.

I wanted the eyes smooth, so where it was rough, I lightly sanded the gesso in the eyes. I haven't done anything beyond the basics, but I love how the color reacts on the gesso. And I like how easy it is to wipe away whites, even with staining colors. This was a process very similar to the zebra found in my September post.