Barn Owl

Beautiful Helen, he looks so fluffy and soft just as he should be.

A lovely piece, dramatic and lively. Beautifully painted.

A beautiful study Helen and a lovely experience you had for the inspiration.

SOoooooo beautiful, Helen. You have really got the colour right as well as the pattern.

Lovely rendition this is. I am constantly wondering how to paint the fluffy aspect of some animals'fur. How did you do it ? This is a technical question in fact ! I'd love to paint my cat who's got long hair but haven't done it yet as I don't know how to go about the fur !

Agnes, there's so many different ways of painting fur! Some people paint practically every hair, while some paint the tones with just some hairs suggested at. Have a look on youtube for ideas. The edge of the owl was done by scratching on mask with the end of a bamboo skewer and a fine mask brush, so it's really just white paper. I went over some small areas with white gouache and a fine rigger around the beak. It's all trial and error! If you look at the sheep I did, you will see that I just hinted at the fur coat. Good luck!

Simply stunning!

Superb, Helen. A perfect grey here.

Wonderful!