New

[Laurene]

I love the storytelling aspect of your trilogy! Well done! ….with my sympathies to the little mouse….

[Mike Sibley]

While working on this piece, I found myself eliminating a lot of lines, especially among the sticks. I did it to primarily increase the 3D look of the sticks.

It was the outlines around the sticks that were driving me mad! They completely removed any sense of reality, and they worked against you by wrecking the three-dimensional forms. Where using cast shadows to expose edges would have worked really well.

Use values to define edges will be one of the items on the list.

It's how we see them. You can't get more natural And, as I'm fond of saying: nothing in life has a line around it.

There are two drawings that follow the mouse on the stump. The magic of automatic shutters on cameras take images every tenth of a second. The second image is just after the owl caught the mouse.

I've had this page open for days, really wanting to comment - but I had the video to finish first. And now I have to finish preparing for a workshop tomorrow evening. But, I will take this opportunity to say I love the feeling of movement, and terror, and the pure immediacy.

One slight criticism, if I may? I'd expect that wing to cast some shade on the legs below. Something like this:

JAY-Owl+Mouse-2.jpg

And that creates depth, while emphasising the claw, and adding even more prominence to the mouse and its plight.

[JayS]

Thanks for your thoughts. If this is #3 in a series should there be a background that is similar to the other 2? This is the central question of my debate with myself.

[Mike Sibley]

Thanks for your thoughts. If this is #3 in a series, should there be a background that is similar to the other 2? This is the central question of my debate with myself.

No.

Oh, you wanted more?

There is nothing a background could add to your story; it can only intrude and confuse. And it already HAS a background. A perfectly valid one - a clear, cloudless, bright sky. I've no doubt at all that is what every viewer will see the background as being. That fulfils the context requirement and offers no distraction at all.

The way I see it:

#1 - the owl is sweeping down to collect lunch from the forest floor
#2 - he's collected his takeaway meal
#3 - he's safely high up in the canopy, about to eat his lunch undisturbed.

That works for me. It's a story in three parts and makes perfect sense.

[PogArtTi]

It's just getting better and better!
This third Owl is looking much sharper and better done that the previous I was following...
I do like it very much what you're doing here.
Nice, clean and realistic drawing.
Well done You!