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LizBoudreauArt — Serenity's Gaze
Published: 2013-08-02 16:19:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 1029; Favourites: 48; Downloads: 3
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Description
Along with members of the weasel family, I have a fascination with owls. Particularly barn owls. There is just something inspiring and mysterious about their lifestyle and physique.Backgrounds have always been my weakness and I wanted to change that. If I am to follow in my dreams of illustrating, creating backgrounds will be important! After studying the works of various illustrators in my personal library, I took notes on some of their techniques to use in this piece. I would greatly appreciate any feedback on how to make my backgrounds better!
This piece took close to 15 hours of toilsome work and will be for sale in the near future.
Dimensions: 7 x 10 Inches
Prismacolor pen (.005 nib) on mixed media paper
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Comments: 36
Oh my god, the detail in these owls is amazing! I've had an obsession with owls since I was a kid, lol
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Thank you! 
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No prob! And agreed. Owls forever
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Incredible detailed drawing of the owls!
I have a owl group please join
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Hey, good deal
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You are welcome
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These are some amazing textures and details! I love how you used different kinds of dots and pen strokes to create different textures and ranges of value. It took a lot of time but it was a job VERY well done!
And since I'm interested in practicing backgrounds as well, do have any recommendations for particular artists who might be good to study?
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Thank you so much! It has taken a lot of practice and come a long way, as any technique does. As for inspiration, here are a few of my favorites: thedancingemu, KalahariFox, Dragarta, Frakkasse, animalartist16, and bibianat. There are plenty of others, but these artist should give you a variety of background styles that all have impressed/inspired me in some way! Hope that helps
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This is perfect, the anatomy and the stippling details 
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I appreciate the kind feedback! It did take a very long time, stippling always takes longer than you think
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I can imagine! When I was in art class in middle school, I remember my stippling pieces looked super rushed.
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Yeah, I had some very bad stippling pieces in the past. I kind of just shove them in a drawer and forget about them
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you are welcome
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This is beautiful! <3 I can't get over how lovely this is. So much detail!!
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Thank you so much! I really appreciate the love <3
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You're super welcome! This is gorgeous <3
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This is gorgeous! I don't really have any experience with backgrounds, so I can't help you there. However, nothing stands out to me that needs to be changed. I think this is so beautiful! 
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Aww, thanks so much! <3 This background took a couple hours just for planning and rough sketching, I wanted it to look nice. That is such a nice compliment, I've always found barn owl faces difficult to master because the placement of the eyes and shading can make or break it. Thank you!
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Don't mention it!
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Wow I think the background is great actually and I love the markings on the owl's wings and the way the stars are echoed in the dappled dots on the barn owl's back
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Thank you so much! When I was deciding on how to shade the sky, I decided that I enjoyed the dappled pattern of the wings and wanted to continue it into the sky. I'm glad you caught that detail!
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Good idea! I don't think many people notice that barn owls have that dappling, I know I never did until I got ref pictures
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That's so true, I didn't know either until I sat down with reference and paid attention to the many textures they have. I think that was when I realized how beautiful they are!
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I always like them but just thought they were sandy and white...its odd that a night bird should be those colours I think!
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Yeah I thought they were just kinda splotchy tan...I don't even think I remembered they have stripes on their wings! It's crazy what referencing a picture can do to your art! But yeah, you would think they would want to blend into the dark...Nature...you crazy
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There must be some reason for that colour!
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Google works its wonders yet again:
"When viewed from above Barn Owls are quite well camouflaged, as the rough grassland over which they usually hunt is predominantly light brown for most of the year. The most plausible explanation for the Barn Owl's white underside is that it works as an anti-silhouette strategy. When viewed from below birds almost always appear as a dark silhouette. To counteract this, the best colour to be is white."
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Hmmmm...but if they hunt at night...the sky is still dark and white is sort of...bright, even in twilight...I guess it makes sense...like sharks I suppose
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Yeah I'm not really sure what they do in night...but I guess since there is moon light, that makes the silhouettes stand out more?
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I was thinking that maybe from beneath, the light colour makes them less conspicuus as the moonlight would shine through the wings, if they were dark, that might not work so well
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Yeah it's confusing. But it seems to have worked since barn owls still exist!
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Yeah lol they're too sophisticated for us
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