Well, I finally had time to work on some small sketches in watercolor of Saw-whet owls. I did them in my small 5.5″ x 8.5″ Raffine sketchbook. I was inspired by the Owl Prowl I went on with the Buffalo Ornithological Society on March 15th. I did get some good photos to work from, but haven’t printed them out yet. These were done from very small pictures in field guides and a book I picked up on birds of prey.
I experimented with lifting color that I didn’t like…on the first owl (top first page) I had painted his eyes too close together. Now I’m a perfectionist, I thought, “I can leave it and just start another and call it practice”…but NO…so I wet the eyes, rubbed with my round brush, and pressed a clean paper towel on it, I repeated this over and over until I lifted a lot more than I thought I’d be able to! Then I let it dry and repainted it.
The little one under it I first drew with permanent ink first then colored it with watercolors. The page looked a little boring so I loosely painted green around the edges.
Page two, the owl on top came out nicely. I say that because as I started it, I didn’t like it very much. If I wanted to take more time and make it more detailed, I would add white to the face feathers with a guache or used liquid frisket to block it (retain white).
The little owl at the bottom is actually very tiny, it’s straight watercolor with no preliminary pencil drawing just like the others. It was so small I had trouble doing his pupils, they should be a tiny bit smaller so his eyes look wide open.
I really liked doing these little owl sketches! I love it’s coloring and it’s wide bright orange eyes!
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Enjoy my sketchbook pages, click on them to see better and read my notes. Do you see the chicken standing on one leg? It reminded me of a fairy tale about the cook who made a succulent roast goose for the king, then ate one huge leg because it looked and smelled so good. The King was furious…the cook, a fast thinker, took the King to see the geese by the lake. He pointed out to the King how they all had just one leg! (of course you and I know they were keeping one tucked up to keep warm under their feathers!) The King didn’t see the trickery of the cook and showed him how to shoo the geese and make them put their feet down. NO more ONE legged geese for dinner!! hahah…. I should illustrate this story, it’s cute. |
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