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Hi everyone!
Today I'm painting a horned owl and two owlets in a tree.
Let's start by looking at the sketch for a moment.
I found the ref photos and ideas from a tv show, a children's book, my own sketches from
an old sketchbook, some free stock photos from pexels.com and google images.
I didn't use any one specific photo ref, but got a reference for the owl's face in one
place, for the wings in another and so on.
I had a grid under the sketch paper for planning the composition.
I tried to place the face of the owl in one of the intersections.
I also thought about the value differences like making the tree darker and the owls a
bit lighter.
And I also planned out the texture of the tree trunk and owl feathers a bit in the sketching
stage as well as the colors.
I wanted the lighting to be daylight, but maybe a bit of a sunset so there would be
a yellow glow on the tree.
As usual, I transferred the sketch onto watercolor paper using graphite paper.
I taped down the watercolor paper onto a piece of hardboard with masking tape and I used
two glass jars of water.
One for painting and the other for the cleaning the brushes.
I used Cotman watercolors and Creabox watercolor pens for painting and added a white outer
glow for the mother owl in acrylic and outlined some parts with a Micron pen.
All the supplies will be listed and linked below.
I started by painting flat and light colors and continued by building up more contrast
and texture.
This painting was a birthday present for my nephew.
We were watching a documentary about horned owls on tv a while ago and he wanted me to
make him an owl painting.
A couple of years ago I painted him a parrot based on some holiday photos from Madeira
and last year I made a beetle painting, which he didn't like as much, although I thought
it was really cute.
But anyway, I'm sticking with birds this year.
He wanted a flying owl, but I wanted to paint an owl sitting on a tree and as a compromise
I drew the owl so that the wings and tail feathers are open like she's just about to
take off and fly.
I also wanted to include some baby owls or owlets, because they just look so funny.
I was thinking of putting the nest in a fork of a tree, but then I saw a photo, where the
nest was in a hollow tree and I liked that a lot more, cause I wanted to paint a big,
old tree anyway.
And that way I could get a better contrast between the light grey, fluffy owlets and
the dark hollow in the tree.
I made a video about the Creabox Marabu watercolor brush pens a few weeks ago and I tried them
again in this painting.
They worked well in combination with watercolors to create darker tones like coloring in the
hole in the tree and blending it outwards with a wet brush.
I did the same with owl beak.
And I used the black watercolor pen to also fill in dark areas like the eyes and parts
of the feathers.
I used the yellow to make the eyes brighter and add yellow light on the tree bark.
Towards the end, I noticed the mother owl didn't stand out much from the tree so I decided
to give her a white outer glow.
Lately I've been using white acrylic paint for adding white details on top of watercolor,
because I don't have a good enough gel pen and the newest correction pen just made puddles
of liquid on one of my previous paintings.
Acrylic paint might be slower and less precise, but at least it works.
I also used a black Micron pen for outlining the big owl, the eyes and beaks of the baby
owls and parts of the tree.
I could've done that in the beginning, because Micron pens are waterproof, but I wasn't sure
whether this painting would look better with or without inking, so I left it for last.
I'm happy with how this owl painting turned out overall.
The background just could've been a little more simple or solid-colored because the big
owl and the tree are already very textured.
So the painting overall might be too busy.
Art prints, mugs, tote bags, pillows and other merch of this owl painting are available in
my Redbubble shop, if you want to check them out.
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I make speed paintings, tutorials and art tips videos on Fridays and relaxing real time
ASMR art sound videos on Tuesdays.
Before we peel off the tape I want to thank you for watching this video and see you next
week.
Bye!