8-31-08: Spirit of the Night
Total hours: 26.76 hours

Mostly this session I highlighted the feathers with a mixture of mostly white and a touch of yellow.  I used a scriptliner brush and the #1 synthetic round.  The painting is now complete.

8-30-08: Spirit of the Night

Today's session I used a scriptliner brush for some detailing the feathers to see if that worked better.  The answer is yes and no.  I've seen other acrylic artists who do exquisite detail with birds.  I'm just not getting there, yet.  The consistency of the paint is either too runny or to dry to do the job.  Since my reference material is not real detailed it's hard for me to extrapolate.

8-29-08: Spirit of the Night

I used a #1 round synthetic brush for the long feathers and some finger blending and a #1 round bristle brush for the shorter body feathers.  For the shorter feathers I used short dabbing motions.  In both cases the colors were variations of white with a touch a lavender/blue.  They had more clarity and definition until they dried.

8-27-08: Spirit of the Night

I worked on reestablishing the body feathers without much luck.

8-26-08: Spirit of the Night

Tonight I added dimension to the owl's face, added his iris, shaded the left feathers on the inside of his left wing and wiped out his body feathers.  No matter how I tried to shape them, they didn't look right.

8-24-08: Spirit of the Night

Using a #1 bristlette round I added more light yellow to the moon.  I also tried a lt. brown/black to shade the craters of the moon.  To the upper sky area around the halo of the moon I feathered in alizarin crimson mixed with a touch of white.  Then I began working on shading the large feathers on the right side of the painting.

8-23-08: Spirit of the Night

I painted the moon in more of a light yellow color and worked more on the halo.  After that, I worked on the owl's legs, feet and tail feathers.  I'm not really sure at this point what the right brushes are to use.  Mostly I used small ones - both bristle and synthetic - rounds.

8-22-08: Spirit of the Night

I concentrated on the moon, trying this thing and that to try to get it rounder, to try to get the halo around it to show up properly.  I didn't have good reference material so that made it more difficult.

8-21-08: Spirit of the Night

Using black, created from diox. purple, cad. yellow medium and black gesso, I took a #2 round synthetic brush and outlined the edges of the feathers.  I will later cover most of the outline.  This gives definition to the edges.  I reshaped some of the feathers and began highlighting the rest of them.

8-19-08: Spirit of the Night

I worked mostly on the body feathers, trying to curve them around, better conforming them to the shape of the body, and making them the right height and width.  They need to be shorter the further down the body they go, and I didn't accomplish that this time.  I also reshaped the tail feathers a little.  The main beneficial discovery was regarding the brush for the feathers.  The best one at this point seems to be a # 1 round bristle brush.

I also added more layers of yellow/white to the eyes, as well as reshaping them a bit.  At this point they are too yellow.  I need to add some tan, I think.

8-18-08: Spirit of the Night

I used a variety of brushes this time, bristle, flat synthetic sable, etc. as I worked on shaping and shading the feathers.  I painted with various mixtures of ultramarine blue, diox. purple, white gesso and mars black.  Mostly the feathers still look blurry.  I want them to be more photo realistic.

8-16-08: Spirit of the Night

I did more of what I did last night, highlighting the sky with the same colors, brightening them a bit.  I added the moon.

8-15-08: Spirit of the Night

Using a #10 bristle brush, I scumbled various combinations of alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue and touches of white gesso onto the sky.

8-13-08: Spirit of the Night

I added white gesso to the mixture I had before and began adding the second layer to the feathers.

8-12-08: Spirit of the Night

I underpainted the owl using a #2 and a #8 flat synthetic sable, and a #1 round bristlette sable.  For the colors, I combined ultramarine blue, diox. purple and white gesso.  I tried adding a little Payne's grey for the darkest shading, but it made the paint look muddy.  For the long feathers I used long straight strokes.  For the little feathers I used short dabby strokes.

8-11-08: Spirit of the Night

Today's session consisted of composition, planning and drawing in the owl with a white charcoal pencil.

8-10-08: Spirit of the Night

Using Jerry Yarnell's hake brush, I blended ultramarine blue and a left over turquoisey color from the last painting in the upper left and at an angle across the canvas.  In the lower right I blended red and alizarin crimson at an angle across the canvas.  To that I added a little diox. purple and white gesso.  Then I blended it and left it to dry.

Using a # 12 bristle brush and circular movements I scumbled ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, diox. purple and a marginal amount of white gesso in varying combinations over the canvas.  I'm not sure if covering the canvas with black gesso to start was an asset or a liability.

8-9-08: Spirit of the Night

Using a 2 inch foam-slab brush I covered canvas with a water base, then black gesso and a bit of ultramarine blue.