Welcome to the Maverick Gallery "On the Easel"

This is an area where I detail what I'm currently working on or have just finished. Its to add insight into how I work and the disasters I overcome or don't....as the case may be :)

This is a work in progress of  "Landing Zone"

It is a 16" x 12" Pastel on Colorfix special paper.

The piece is an attempt to capture a pure study of a Barn Owl. The background is a very dark green merged to black, partly to help hold the bird and also to not detract from it with detail. The Stump has detail but again in the main remains fairly dark to not distract.
 

Well you can see the bird drawn out, with some basic feather positioning and detail. I started by covering the backdrop in black pastel with some green merged in. The actual piece shows it as a dark swirling green not black as it appears here. I started on the stump with no idea what I was doing and ended up going over it three time with total changes. The end effect is ok...just ok...for now. It seems to shine on the top edge front...which it doesn't in real life! Shame ! And I'm not convinced on the sawn end either at present.

Above I started on the top of the head and worked down. I feel the right eye (from our point of view) is too round and not cat eye enough. I will correct that later. Possibly also its a bit flat, needing some darker areas near the eyes to push them deeper.

See below for a closer head view..... The actual eyes feel strong and work well. Just perhaps other areas need a little more dark and some depth. Working down the back of the bird has gone well and there's a nice feel to it. Tomorrow I will work on the hanging wing and this should tell me of the head needs more work once I see stronger colours on the piece :)

Below I started working down the body. Barn Owls are very difficult to represent accurately. They have certain colour bands BUT these also vary from bird to bird. You can actually have almost white barn owls and others that are SO strongly coloured. What I have achieved here is a strong tone of golden browns with silver grey markings of this particular bird. I have managed to create depth and wing "hang" with subtle shadow tones and make the bulk feel as though its rounded with some sheen. Although the markings are an organised mess it does take a long time to work feather by feather and also make sure they are technically correct.

Working along the main wing feathers I created a feel of shine and yet kept the colour semi strong. Pushing the legs under and back is quite hard since this bird is actually turned slightly and its feet are at unusual angles. Using the toe to come at the viewer helps the depth a little and also highlights the top of the stump coming at the viewer as well. The cracking allows the lines of depth to continue.

Finally (below) I re-covered the background. It shows as black but is actually toned with green. I then touched the sawn end up a bit and made it feel better.

I will take some photos using daylight tomorrow and then I think I will cut a mount and frame it. I have in mind a gold frame that will go well with the colours and create a wonderful centre piece image. I will use these for the listing.