The Little Owl- Mixed Media and Photography

 Little Owl photographed on local moor, May 2015
© Gayle Mason Fine Art

Little Owl - Mixed Media on Paper

I am lucky enough to live within a couple of miles of several Little Owls and have spent many hours watching and photographing them.
I had already started the painting above or I would probably have used the photograph above. That particular owl was cross at being disturbed when I came upon it unexpectedly. It certainly wasn't frightened as I walked past with two of the dogs simply turned his head to make sure I was moving on. I particularly like the ruffled feather as I think it gives the owl character.

The painting has an acrylic background and the owl is coloured pencil. I'm using Arches hot pressed watercolour paper and the finished size will be approximately 12 x 18 inches.

Grouse Study in Mixed Media

Red Grouse Study

Mixed Media on Paper, 14 x 18 inches

Original Available, email me if interested.

I am lucky to have several areas of moorland close to home that sustain breeding populations of red grouse so that over the course of several years I have taken hundreds of reference photographs in all seasons.

I couldn't make my mind up if I wanted to do a painting or drawing so decided to go for the best of both worlds and combine the two. The main image is acrylic fading into graphite and the two small ones are graphite.

Detail from the above study.

My original idea included either one or two flying grouse but sadly I was always too slow with my camera and captured mostly tips of wings, trailing legs or no grouse at all, so a flying grouse will have to wait for another time.

As I have so many good photographs to work from I will be doing another drawing in the future, perhaps a less serious image like one taken from my reference photograph below.

Early Summer Catch Up

'Merlin'

Coloured Pencil and Acrylic on black pastel paper.

I hadn't realised I'd been away from my blog for over a month but I have so here's a catch up of what I've been doing.

Patching was successful as I got commissioned to do some work. I don't want to share the details just yet but all will be revealed later in the year.

I don't accept many commissions so I'm now booked up for the rest of the year and have my first one booked for 2014. I'm looking forward to that one as it's a pencil drawing of a game bird.

I've been accepted as a member of the Association of Animal Artists (AAA) and hope to be exhibiting at their Animals in Art Exhibition. This exhibition will be held from 27th July to th 15th September 2013 at Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, Lancashire, UK.

I've been on several reference gathering trips for both wild and captive animals including visiting Chester Zoo to photograph their delightful tiger cubs.

I've spent more time gardening than painting over the last few days making the most of the sunshine.

I'll try not to leave it so long next time :)

Painting a Little Owl in Chromacolour

I'm back home from holiday but still feeling jet lagged. We had a fantastic time but it is always nice to come home, and then start planning for next year!

I'll be demonstrating for Chromacolour at Art Materials Live which is held at the NEC in November. I'm painting some small pieces to leave in various stages of completion to give people an idea of my technique with acrylic. As  paint really slowly I thought if I had a few different pieces I could work on over the four days I could demonstrate feathers, fur, eyes etc
This is a Little Owl from my own reference photograph, 8 x 6, chromacolour on mdf board.
I'm using a mix of raw and burnt umber, ultramarine blue, paynes grey and white for the feathers.

I will work this to completion because I need it for my solo exhibition which also starts in November.

Tawny Owl in Mixed Media - Final Stage

'Ruffled Feathers'

12 x 16 inches, mixed media on watercolour paper, painted from my own reference photographs.

I'll put my owl to one side for a few days before I make the final adjustments. Now to go and finish the snow leopard and the other owl.

Tawney Owl Continued

I've continued to work on the tawny owl painting slowly down the body. I decided the tail feathers looked hard to work out so I'm leaving those for last.
I'm thinking about adding the stump in graphite as I don't want to take the focus away from the owl. I'll have a play in Photoshop before I decide.
I've decided to do a series of owls as I have some nice reference photographs of both the barn and little owls.

Harrogate Flower Show

I'm continuing to work on my pheasant in between printing cards and prints ready for Harrogate Flower Show.
I have to set up my stand tomorrow and the show runs from Thursday the 26th until Sunday the 30th. If you visit the show come and say hello, I'll be in the Made in Yorkshire marquee working on my pheasant.
Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is better than the forecast.

Little Owl in Mixed Media

'Little Owl'

Mixed media on drafting film

As a complete change from the cats I've started working on one of my older paintings that I've ignored for a considerable time.
I'm using coloured pencil and acrylic on drafting film.
I see a little owl most evenings when I take Clinton a walk down the lane, unfortunately it usually sees me first and hides in the middle of the bush it likes to sit next to.
The curlews are also back, I usually see between 2 and 4 walking about searching the ground or flying over the fields. I love the haunting cry of the curlew especially when you get several all crying at once.

Pheasants in graphite

I'm working on a graphite drawing of a male and female pheasant.
It will be about 16 x 12 and I'm using mellotex paper.
I've only included the part that fit in my scanner because my camera doesn't like the lack of light today.

The original reference images courtesy Alan D. Wilson, Naturespicsonline.com, used with Alan's permission.

A Robin in Watercolour

A few months ago I painted a robin in watercolour but was never happy with the crop. I got the original out today and tightened it up, it looks better now, to me anyway.

Little Owl Part 2

I'm continuing to work on the owl. I tend to work on one area at a time building the depth by glazing thin layers of paint.
The great thing about using acrylics is that adjustments can be made as and when necessary. For me this removes the hesitation in getting started because I know if when I go wrong I can correct the mistake.
I try not to add any white to the colour I'm glazing with to keep it as transparent as possible. For the feathers I'm using a lot of burnt and raw umber with touches of paynes grey and alizarin to vary the colour.
I glaze over the white feathers with burnt umber then add more white etc until I'm happy with the result.

Little Owl in Acrylic

I wanted to try a small version of the Little Owl before attempting one with a full background.
This is a captive bird that I photographed at a game fair. I can see the plumage much better in this photograph than my wild owl one so decided it would be good to practice the feather structure.
It is 8 x 10 inches, acrylic on MDF.

Osprey in Acrylic

Following my workshop this is pure acrylic on illustration board.

Original reference image courtesy Alan D. Wilson, Naturespicsonline.com, used with Alan's permission.

I'm now going to attempt a bigger painting on board, could it be a cat?

Supreme Cat Show

To bid on my latest small print click here.
I'm not sure that I'm ready yet for the Supreme, but as it's tomorrow I've run out of time.
I created a new small work today out of the Great Spotted Woodpecker I drew a while ago.
At least it makes a change from cats.

Robin in Watercolour

The mallard was completed and delivered to NEWA, it's now a matter of waiting to see if it gets selected for the exhibition.

Following completion of the Mallard I've started a Robin in watercolour. This time I'm going to paint in some branches, fading them out towards the edges and leave the rest of the background white.
This is only part of the painting, the part that fit on my scanner.

Female Mallard

Back to the Mallard, just the bottom right to finish and a little tweaking.

Little Owl Continued

I've been asked a lot of questions about how I combine acrylic and coloured pencil on drafting film. All will be revealed, but it will have to be later I'm off to catch a train now as I'm not in a driving into city centre mood.

Little Owl on Drafting Film

A different subject and a surface I haven't used for a long time, drafting film. I'm working mainly in coloured pencil with touches of acrylic.
This is just part of the whole image, it will be around 20 x 16 when finished and include the whole of the owl.

Mallard in Mixed Media

I've got back to the Mallard at last. This is a terrible photograph as the light is poor but it gives you an idea of how she's progressing. There is definitely no orange tinge to the sky in real life and the eye is darker, the touch of charcoal reflected the flash.

Back to the Mallard and a Goal Achieved.

Earlier in the year I mentioned that one of my aims this year was to enter more competitions and/or exhibitions. So far I've entered three and I've been successful in the first one. One of my pieces has been shortlisted for Wildlife Artist of the Year. It will be on display at the Mall Galleries in London in June, more details later.

I've done some more work on the Mallard, mainly the boring bits, the background. The photograph isn't very good as today has been a day of really heavy showers so the light is poor. The little bit of colour I've added isn't showing up very well so I'll do a scan tomorrow.