Owls
They are a very marvelous yet mysterious creatures, you cannot help but admire because of how amazing it is! Especially those stunning golden eyes that feels very intimidating that stares at your very soul. Also with its head twisting ability that can turn for almost a full revolution (which is like the possessed being from the exorcist movie). They fly by night and hunt their prey with their uncanny ability, but because they are night-fliers, many people are afraid of them. Many cultures and societies relate them with negativity, darkness and mystery while others associate them with wisdom and prophecy. Reference
The Great Horned Owl (Bubo viginianus), also known as Tiger Owl are large owls native in Americas. They are an extremely adaptable birds and they eat any animal it can overtake, like rabbits, rats, rodents, mid-sized mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Good thing they are not bigger than us or else, we may be part of their diet😌. Wikipedia
I painted this owl because of how amaze I am with this bird, her eyes captivated my soul. Just look at it! :) She has a very strong gaze.
Facts about the owl:
They are cannibals😱
Yep! It's shocking, the bigger owls will eat smaller owls. That's always the way of life in the jungle, survival of the fittest! The Great Horned Owls are the chief predator to the smaller barred owl.
All owls can turn their head up to 270 degrees
Owls vary in sizes, coloration and appearance but they all have the ability to turn their heads up to 270 degrees because of their neck that have 14 vertebrae rather than 7 found in normal birds. This enables them to twist and turn their own heads. They also have blood vessel routing and air cushioned casings that will prevent them from rupture and stroke during extreme head movement.
They have awesome eyes
Owls are known for their extremely large eyes that are actually tube-shaped, because of this they cannot move their eyes like we do, that is why they turn their heads to see the other directions.Their eyes can see even the smallest animal from far away because of their great binocular vision that boost their depth perception and also because of their big eyes, it can efficiently collect and process small rays of light enabling them to see well at night.
They are silent killers
Owls are equipped with weapons that can easily capture its prey, they have sharp talons, hooked bills and soft feathers. It is this soft feathers that give this owls their greatest advantage as a hunter, this feathers have special edges and velvety soft covering that absorbs sound and lets the owls fly so quietly that their prey never hears them coming.
Those are some of the facts about owls. If you want to read more about it, you can go here:
- https://listverse.com/2013/09/15/10-awesome-facts-about-owls/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horned_owl
Owls also symbolizes something
According to this website: link
- Owls sightings and calls can be either good or bad omen.
- Ancient Welsh connected the owls with fertility. It is said that if a pregnant woman hears an owl, she will have an easy labor.
- Romans also connected the owls with the goddess Athena, wisdom and prophecy.
- While the Ancient Christians associated the owls as the sign of evil and connected them with Lilith, who was Adam's first, disobedient wife.
If you want to read more about the owl's symbolism, you can go here:
Now that we know the facts and symbolism of the mysterious Owls, let me share to you my drawing and painting of it.
Here is my pencil drawing of the Great Horned Owl.
This was my drawing of an Owl before.
I used a 0.35 mm mechanical pencil for this drawing along with 6B pencil for the darker areas and a color pencil for the eyes to give it a more powerful gaze. I will not include the detailed procedure for this drawing in this post because it will lengthen this post even more and it may bore you. Maybe I will make a separate post for this drawing, comment below if you want me to make a full guide on how to draw this owl.
For now, here is the GIF process for this drawing
And here is the new version of my Owl.
This is my first time using a watercolor ever since grade school, I'm glad It worked out quite well, if I say so myself. XD .I always thought that I can never learn how to paint using watercolor,acrylic or oil because I suck at it so bad when I was in grade school. It was so hard to control watercolor back then and also as of today, but I can control it a bit better now, and I am hoping that I can improve even further and create a more lively art because color gives life to the drawings. I want to challenge my self even more this coming year. Maybe I will give acrylic and oil a try after I can get the hang of using watercolor.
I am deeply hoping that my art has become lively in your eyes.
Now, I will show you how I made my art.
Materials I used:
- 0.35 mm Mechanical pencil (Rotring)
- Water soluble colored pencil (Faber Castell)
- Watercolor (Koi watercolors)
- Eraser
- Ruler
- Watercolor Pad (Berkeley 190 gsm)
- Water Brush (Freebie from Koi)
- Sharpener
- White pigment ink pen broad
Step 1: Guidelines
I first drew the guidelines using a ruler and the mechanical pencil. I used a ruler to be accurate because I have this tendency that makes my lines unbalanced. Just like my eyes that are not in balance, the other eyelid is not the same as the other one which makes it look bigger than the other one. It's very weird.
Next, I drew the outlines for the eyes. I really like to start from the eyes because it makes it alive faster.
Coloring the eyes
I then colored the eyes using my colored pencil. I first colored the pupil with black a colored pencil while leaving a space uncolored as the highlights for the eyes. Then I applied a light yellow as the first layer for the eye ball, then followed by another layer of orange and light blue.
Adding the face fur
Now, I was planning to use water color pencil for the whole art but fortunately I made a mistake. I colored it with too much orange and it was impossible to add it with another color because the brown color pencil was not enough to over power the color of the orange. I almost gave up with this art because it was becoming a huge hassle for me, but then I thought why not just play and experiment with it? That's when I thought about the watercolor that I recently gift myself, it was a good time to practice it so I gave it a try. I used the yellow ochre to coat the orange color fur but it was still too dark so I balanced it in the other side of the face. I painted it with yellow ochre and burnt umber to try to balance them out. Here is the result of that, It is clearly darker in the right side.
Completing the head
Next I applied yellow ochre to the forehead leaving some areas uncoated for the white eyebrows of the owl.
While waiting for it to dry I painted the right ear with black paint and yellow ochre at the side.
After the paint in the forehead was dry, I painted it with some ivory black paint using small strokes while making sure that it is following the shape of the head.
Adding fur to the body
Then I painted the left ear with black and painted yellow ochre to the face and body.
After the paint in the right part of the body was dry, I then painted it with black paint using the same small strokes that I used in the forehead, making sure that it is following the shape of the body. I always looked at the reference photo for this so that I can know where the direction of the fur is.
Next, I painted the left part of the body of the owl with the same small strokes of black paint. In the lower part of the body I diluted it with water to make the paint look less intense to create a somewhat blur effect. This is done so that the art will look more realistic with the depth perception.
Painting the wings
I then painted the right wing with yellow ochre and black paint and also with Jaune Brilliant because I noticed that it has some slight orange color to it.
Then, I painted the tail of the owl with yellow ochre. I diluted it with more water to make it even more blurry to create an effect of being far from the face.
Now, this is where I was having a hard time. I was not sure how to create a white fur. So, what I did is that I used the muddy water that has a greyish effect to create a shadow like texture. and from there I used the white gel pen to create a highlight. I also used the mechanical pencil to create define the feathers even more.
Owl completion
Now, I have completed the Owl, I thought about stopping it here because I was scared to add even more paint and would end up ruining it but then again I think to myself, F**k it! you are not an artist if you limit yourself. and that is what convinced me to continue messing with it. I took off the masking tape because I will color this whole paper with paint.
Adding background
I painted the background with Permanent Green pale to create a greeny background. I diluted it with water to make it blurry and create depth for the subject. Then I started to add the missing parts of the owl.
I diluted the paint even more because it is getting far away from focus. Then I added it more details using the white gel pen. I also used it to create the white fur and the highlight of the eyes.
Now I have finished it completely
The GIF Process
I am very proud with this art. I can definitely call it my own!
I feel like a real artist now. This is the first time that I did not watch any tutorial on how to make something. This was purely my skills and the fruits of my hard work and dedication. I will continue to work on honing my skills even further and I hope you guys will be there to support me.
I now have found my new year's resolution and that is to