I have long been inspired by birds, even before I started painting last year in oils. But with so many species, in many surroundings such as Tropical Forest, or English countryside, the backgrounds and actual birds themselves are often very colourful. This is a wonderful thing of course.

But this painting was different. The icy blue Tundra, white with  snowy terrain, matched that of the owl. The sky itself was a dull grey .There was literally no colour anywhere but in the magnificent eyes of the creature. This is what drew me to the species.

Having completed the stark background, it took many hours to portray the lay of the white feathers .Brush strokes had to represent the directional layering of the birds wing feathers in flight, plus the subtle tints of off white that gave the body depth. Another couple of hours on the black markings making sure that some faded to grey as the feathers above overlapped them, gave the right effect.

 

Then everything was still stark, grey, white and black . This is exactly the setting needed to set those beautiful yellow eyes off. An initial iris in cadmium yellow, and the pupil  really popped. Then came the really enjoyable bit. Bringing the animal to life. Eyes are always the crucial part of any portrait or animal painting, and to get them wrong, means the life isn’t sparking at all. So, as with all eyes, the lids cast a subtle shadow onto the eyeball itself.

Using a subtle mixed cadmium orange paled with white, and added to a glaze of raw umber, the perfect colour for this eyelid cast shadow was created, and the eye began to take form. The finishing touch was the highlight. Unless eyes are in direct sunlight, there are not always bright white dots of highlight, yet many people tend to use that formula, no matter the weather and light source in a work.

Concluding that this tundra terrain had little to reflect as the sky was story, I therefore simple did a very thinned wash of lemon yellow mixed with white, to form an off white. By simply adding a pin prick of this colour just out of the black circle of each iris, yet dragging the paint into the iris itself with a tiny brush, I managed the effect I desired. This is how the eyes came to life in that stormy high key painting, without having to use the conventional stark white dot for a highlight.