Great Horned Owl

Today I had the opportunity to work from a stuffed mount of a Great Horned Owl that was brought to a friend's home that would be picked up later that day by a carver who wanted to use it as a model for one of his carvings.












I worked on a number of sketches until I was sure the anatomy was correct.

Once the drawing was blocked in I gradually added details to the line drawing starting with the head.

One of the most important things was to get the correct shape of the beak and how the eyes were positioned with the large area of the mask around them.

The placement of the feathered ears came next.

I wanted to get the head of the bird completed first and more details and some shading was added to give it shape.

Then I worked through the body and the placement of the wings.

Details were added to the feet and then the talons were given shape and darkened. Feathering was added to the legs.

Moving up the body the structure of the inside of the wings was indicated and the tops of the wings were given a little more detail and shading.

I was able to add some roundness to the body before the carver arrived to take the owl away.

This original 9" x 12" graphite pencil drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $75.00.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork.