Technique: painting an owl

My painting process for creating an illustration for the children’s book Silent Swoop: An Owl, An Egg, and a Warm Pocket is shown here. This book tells the true story of Coal, a rescued Great Horned Owl, and Walter Crawford, the man who founded the World Bird Sanctuary for just such special birds. The process of creating the illustrations for this story begins with much research and thought. After approvals of my concept sketches by the publisher, author and the World Bird Sanctuary, the process of painting the illustrations begins. First stage is the underdrawings where I find the images with my pencil. This is followed by watercolor washes, more layers and then careful painting of details. Much of the underdrawing is erased at a certain stage so that the colors are clean. I then add touches of pastel where needed to give a richer feeling to some colors and to add some sparkle. My last stage is to scan the art into a high resolution digital file. Using photoshop, I carefully clean and tweak the digital files until they are print ready. Then they are sent off to the publisher for approvals. I’m happy to say that there were no changes.

 
Finished illustration of a Great Horned Owl landing on coal conveyor belt at night.

Illustration in use on the cover of the children’s book, Silent Swoop: An Owl, an Egg, and a Warm Pocket.

More about the book here