The Great Horned Owl in Miniature - Painting

These photos show the base coating of whites and oranges. Check any reference you are working with prior to painting. For these steps, I used an airbrush. I put the colors on very lightly, not totally covering any area. I let the wood color show through, using the wood color to my advantage. As for the paint colors, the white mix is a blend of 90% titanium white, 5% raw sienna, and 5% raw umber. I am not overly concerned about an exact color; I am just after a dirty white. The intensity and brightness of white can be adjusted by the quantity and concentration of paint in one area. As for the orange mix, the blend is about 75% raw sienna and 25% burnt sienna.

The next series of photos shows the darkening or shadowing of areas. I especially like to hit the valleys and creases that I’ve carved into the bird. The color used for this is a dark brown. Again, I am not concerned about an exact color. The mix I used was a blend of 70% raw umber and 30% burnt umber. This is achieved with the airbrush.

Here we can see how I started adding the barring and cryptic patterns of the bird. I achieved this patterning with a paintbrush. The color is the same dark brown used in the shadowing stage. Rather than paint it on with smooth strokes, it is more a series of dabbing. You’ll find this to be a very slow and tedious process. There is no exactness to any of the cryptic patterning. Check your reference and use your own artistic license.

Next step is to tone down the whites and oranges. I do it with washes of browns, using the same brown mix. I purposely leave some areas lighter than others. This will give a more eye-appealing look when finished.

I now move on to the face. The white and orange is the base coat from earlier. I now add the black areas. The color mix I use here is a blend of 60% raw umber and 40% black; this will give me a nice warm black. I now hand brush the outer row of the facial disc and the beak. I then lightly airbrush the under area of the brow. Next, I airbrush –very, very lightly—the beak area that lies underneath his moustache.

Using a brush, I paint the eye rings and break up the orange edge of the facial disc.

Now I begin to detail the face. I get the white of the moustache with individual brush strokes, and I have painted the outer half of the ear tufts with the base brown, as well as barring the inner half of the ear tufts. The tiny feathers under the bleak have been painted as well. I first base coated them by airbrush with the orange mix, then hand brushed the warm black through the center of the feathers and edged them with white.

I now move on to the throat patch, chest, and belly. This area is completely base coated with the base dirty white.

I now use the base orange. Checking my reference, I lightly air brush the center of the feathers,

The chest and belly area is now ready to be detailed. I begin by painting the dark markings. Check your reference: these markings are almost straight across, with very little curvature from side to side. The color is slightly lighter than our base brown: a mix of 90% raw umber and 10% burnt umber. You can put in the dark quill markings in at this time as well. Once I’ve painted the dark markings, I move on to white, painting many individual thin lines on the lower portion of the feathers. Don’t be afraid to run these fringes into lower or neighboring feathers.

Going back to the original white mix, I paint a white edge on the top of the brown barring. I don’t paint every feather in this manner; I hopscotch around. I do, however, paint a fine white line above each split.

I now brighten the white on the outer scapular feathers. Don’t be afraid to overlap feathers with these thin strokes. I also have begun to paint the shafts. I used the dark brown mix. I also painted a thin tan-colored line on the inner portion of the shafts of the major flight feathers.

This series of photos shows the finished back areas of the bird. I have spent many hours individually stroking whites as well as browns to get here. Notice the many soft values of browns, oranges, and whites. This is a slow, tedious process, but the end result is well worth the effort.

This series shows the details of the finished breast and belly area. Once again, it took me many hours of painstaking work with single brush strokes of whites and browns. On the throat area, I applied a base coat of medium gray (a blend of white and black) with the airbrush. Then, many strokes of titanium white over the gray created the translucent effect.

A close-up of the back of the head, painted in the exact same process as the entire back area.

These close-ups of the head show some of the detail.