Thursday Feb 8th – 1pm-3pm EST
My nemesis the snowy owl!! I’ve left the best AND the hardest for last. Very subtle values here and those markings are a one time only chance. And of course the dreaded bird feet!!! But they’re a wonderful subject so it’s worth all the pain.
Please do the drawing ahead of time as usual.
(All session materials are linked off the main page)
Materials:
- Student paper for mixing color swatches
- 100% cotton paper for the full painting (I’ll be using 10″x10″)
- Value scale (See the Useful Tools page)
- Pencil/Paint/Palette/Water/Paper towels/masking tape
- Brushes: A larger brush for the washes. A slightly smaller (10 or 12) for the face and later details.
- Colors: Cobalt blue, Ultramarine, Burnt sienna, Vermillion/napthol/cad red (orangey red), Cad lemon/hansa yellow (greenish yellow), yellow ochre, black.
Reference Photo (click to enlarge and right click to download)
Reference Photo with grid
My Version:
Drawing Video:
The Drawing:
Class Video:
Today’s snowy owl -I lost the markings a bit and the wing feathers but I do think he looks quite 3D so overall I’m happy with him!
My branches need a lot of work
Beautiful Maggie. Fabulous job. Great feet too!!
Thank you ☺️
I’m learning from the best
Awww. I try….
I quite like the branch myself.
Michele, thank you for a great series on values, my weak area. The color app is a great tool to help.
The snowy owl was a great lesson. I just wish I had practice a bit before adding the feather marks.
All in all not bad looking.
Values are always a good topic to focus on regardless of where we are in our painting ‘journey’. And I’m glad you like the tool. I’ve found I rarely use it any more when I’m painting myself. Just using it for a while trains you to perceive values much more accurately. I had worried that I’d become dependent on it but the opposite has happened.
And you’re right – we should have done some practice on those markings beforehand. My bad…