Saturday, October 13, 2012

Great Horned Owl

15x11 watercolor on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper, work in progress finished today. Here in this last step, I've added distant background water and foreground.  I might glaze again the foreground water but for the most part, he is done.  In the ref, he had a red brick building behind him, so I've taken artistic license and put him in a more natural setting of a lake with trees.

This is the third step showing distant horizon line of autumn colorful trees, plus tail feathers.  I dropped small amounts of water into an almost dry watercolor where it lost its shine, to give the illusion of fog.  Also I added a few reflections of trees and finishing touches to the tree branch the owl is perched upon.

Here is the completed great horned owl's body, step 2 of my WIP.  I'll lightly draw in a branch for him, then plan the background elements. (Owl photo reference courtesy WetCanvas)



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