DrawWithMike.net

Not much of an update, but still several hours work. That right-hand side (viewer's right) needs to go much darker and I need to add some wood grain so that it marries a little better with the left-hand side.

Linda, I tried different sized feathers in photoshop, and I settled on one that's pretty close to actual size. I like the idea of a large feather as though a real feather had fallen on the drawing! I can imagine it coming out of the frame a little. In this case though, I was using it just as a way of stopping the eye from going right off the page. I've sketched it in for now to see how it feels. The idea is to keep the eye circulation back up to the owl.

Laurene wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:43 pm I like the idea of a large feather as though a real feather had fallen on the drawing! ...In this case though, I was using it just as a way of stopping the eye from going right off the page. ...The idea is to keep the eye circulation back up to the owl.

That's going to work well. Not dominant, but there to stop the eye, and its curvature shepherding the eye back up to the owl.

Just a quick thought - a Plan B - a bracket fungus might do the same job.

I can imagine it coming out of the frame a little.

That will work well Laurene. I have used that trick often and it creates another dimension to the drawing, especially if you pay close attention to the shadow below the feather and make sure that a slight shadow also continues outside the frame.

I am really enjoying watching this one come together!

Mike and Linda thank you so much for your suggestions. I could see either of them working and I did try them both in PaintShop but I just had too much wood grain already drawn in. Both ideas would have meant quite a bit of erasing, but I'll probably use them in a future drawing! I already have a couple of ideas.

Here's another update. More wood grain!! Linda, I'm slowly pushing back the detail by darkening certain areas. I hope it's showing up in the scans. Do you think it's less distracting now? I know I want to darken it further but I doing it gradually until more of the drawing is finished. I'll try to show how I'm doing this in the next post.

Mike, this is the best I can do to show you how I'm using graphite powder on a bit of soft t-shirt cotton to darken certain areas. I saturate the cloth, then rub all of the excess powder off. Once the cloth is "dirty", I can use if quite a few times. I doesn't lift nearly as much as tissue does. I rub or stroke the area I want darkened VERY lightly so the underlying detail isn't destroyed. If the detail fades a little I can always go over it again with a sharp 2B pencil.

I know there are many different ways of doing this and your method of layering different grades works best in my opinion to conserve detail but when I need to cover large areas this saves time and works well. If I want some of the detail to be a little blurred so that the sharpest detail is in the subject, not the wood grain, I just have to apply a little more pressure. Works well for water, snow and sky too.

Slowly making more progress. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

I've used that method that I discussed earlier where I lightly go over a detailed area with graphite powder to push an area back. There is a LOT of graphite on the viewer's right side of the stump! I can still see some detail showing through on the original drawing though, which is what I was trying to achieve. I hope the wood grain in the stump isn't competing with the owl as much now. That back piece of the stump at the top is just sketched in at this point and needs a lot more work.

I've also added lighter shadows to the owl in order to have him sit a little better in the scene, but I did those with a 2H pencil. I can see now that he still needs more shadowing, but I'm a little afraid of going too far!

Calling this one done now. I thought of adding a background, but elected to leave it as is. If you see anything that looks off, please let me know. Thanks for following along.

A nice finish Laurene! Beautifully rendered.
Question - on the left at the end of the branch, the wood sort of fades off instead of having a defined edge. Is this just the photo? Every other bit of wood has an edge so I am wondering.
I don't think it needs a background either - if you did want to add one I would suggest that it is only a soft gradiant running from dark at the bottom and fading to white about 1/2 to 3/4 way up the page - no detail.

Well done! a beautiful work.

Thanks Linda!

Yes, you're absolutely right, my original intention was to have a bit of a misty background since this owl hunts often at sunrise or sunset. I haven't sprayed the painting yet for that reason. I'll live with it a little bit and think it through. The only reason I didn't go ahead with my original idea is that lower right of the stump is so dark as is, it might be difficult to have it merge with a faded background as I had hoped.

I'll experiment on another sheet of paper and if I don't like what I see, I'll clean up that edge on the left side.

LindasPencils wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:42 am Question - on the left at the end of the branch, the wood sort of fades off instead of having a defined edge. Is this just the photo? Every other bit of wood has an edge, so I am wondering.

I'm wondering too. Except - I'm concerned that removing that faded area might then create an edge that leads my eye out of the drawing.

There's something else that's bothering me too: the owl doesn't really "belong" to the branch. I think that's because there isn't a discernable shadow beneath it. There are values under the owl that are echoed to either side of it, yet it should be blocking the light in that area. I'm quite annoyed with myself for feeling I should mention that, because it's a stunning drawing and I don't want to detract from it at all.

Background? Personally, I wouldn't add one. I'm not sure if this helps but I have a personal rule: Only include a background if it adds something to the story. This is definitely a portrait of an owl and I'm not convinced that a background would tell me anything more about it.