My young barred owl came from a reference picture that my sister shot while she was out walking earlier in the spring. It was a young owl just sitting in the tree looking very lost. She said that she later saw the parents in a tree further away. I decided to use this picture for my demoing at the fair this summer and it proved to be a very good subject. Many people stopped to have a look and to talk with me about it.
I find preparing for a demo where my audience will be coming and going is quite different than one where you have a captive group. I do an outline drawing of the entire picture and then do some detail drawing around the eyes. This leaves me lots to work on and talk about but also gives the picture a focus. I find a good size for the picture is 10.5 by 14.5 as it allows enough detail for different techniques, it is visible from quite a distance and yet still quite portable when clipped to a wooden drawing board. I also pick a subject that does have a background so there is always something that needs filling in but doesn't require careful study. The tree and branches in this picture were excellent for this purpose.
This is what I was able to complete during my 4 days of demoing plus some work on the side. I had to leave a very large section of the one side open as it was not clear on my reference picture and I knew I was going to have to work on it slowly and carefully. I had to leave the picture at this point as I had other commitments but now I am back on track.
2 comments:
This is lovely. I love the owls. Hope you had a good time at the demo.
Great job.
Yes the demo was a lot of fun. Many people stopped to talk about my work and to tell me their owl stories.
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