Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Owl re-think

It was a crazy day today.  Work had me re-arranging my schedule and it completely threw off the rest of my day - including the portion I usually assign to painting!  I did do a LOT of thinking about the owl though and I have come to a few conclusions.  First, I need to take a better look at the eye and understand how to shape it properly.  Probably be a good idea to make some sketches of the characteristics of the bird as well so I can get a handle on how they work.

Second, I'm not exactly inspired by the image I have chosen to paint.  Don't get me wrong he's a beautiful example of owl-iness, it's just that this image isn't calling to me to get in there and get him done.  This is a fairly bad thing since this is an image I chose.  Sooo...I thought I'd look up some images of great horned owl eyes via Google (thank you again internet!!).  I found so many really cool examples of owl faces and postures that I didn't see the last time I researched it.  These images had so much more personality to them - which is more what I'm looking for in a subject.

I also thought I'd check out my local library for books on drawing and working on bird images.  I did find one or two that looked promising when I checked their online catalogue.  I guess what I'm coming down to is that I won't be continuing the current owl image.  Don't worry, I will put him in a drawer for now and if I become a really incredible artist one day, I may be able to come back to him and see what happens.  For now I think I need to go back to the drawing board (pun intended).  Similar to the skull image I did (see previous skull posts) I have never drawn a bird before and so I should get back to basics.

For those of you that thought I'd be able to whip up an owl image in no time - I am sorry to disappoint you, but I don't see the point in creating an image I won't be proud of or even a little satisfied with.  I hope you enjoy the ride as I work through this project anyway, I plan to!

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