Digital collage with a blackbird, a joint effort of ArtFlow and Painter (both are Android drawing apps) and Photoshop. The bird took forever and some to get right. I could draw it on paper times faster, but somehow “digital” translated into “quick” in my mind. It’s not quick, at least not if you were born way before computers, tablets, and digital pens.
wild birds
Stranger
I was asked more than once why I don’t draw owls, and given the fact that they are my next favorite animals after horses it really begs the question. My explanation so far was that it’s far easier to obtain my own horse reference which is always preferred over free and inexpensive options that can be used by somebody else too.
However, the time keeps marching by, and my own supply of owl photos stays at zero. I do see owls every now and then which is very nice, but the lighting conditions are such that even the best camera in the world will not help my shaky coffee hands to make even a semi-decent shot. So I finally looked for other options.
So now I have my very own owl peaking out of a crumbling wall. Thank you, Lynton Bolton, for a great reference photo.
An observation: if an owl has light, fluffy feathers they will do everything they can to turn out a mess. They observe no rules, no order, nothing of what fur usually does.