Eagle Owl by peter bebb

This is wonderful work,incredible feathers and eye. I saw a big owl at night and then again at dusk during the blue moon a couple of weeks ago. Ithink by its call it was a tawny- they are fascinating birds. Lovely painting of one.

Beautiful! Love the composition and detail in one half, simplicity in the background, very effective. Well done

All your pastel paintings are amazing. Pastel was fast becoming my prefered medium but after seeing yours I throw the towel in and concede defeat, I could never produce anything half as good. Any tips you could impart without giving away any of your trade secrets gratefully received.LOL

I love owls, and this is fantastic, so life like. Love your other works as well.

Beautiful and lots of stunning detail.

Thankyou all for your great comments. I don't think i have any secrets to impart. There are one or two things that I can suggest. The first one is practice, the more you do the better you really will become (honest). I started painting full time 14 months ago and you would not believe how much I improved. The second thing is to find the right materials that suite your style. When I first started with pastels I painted on Ingres pastel papers with very soft pastels. The very soft pastels are very difficult to handle when beginning with pastels, although their vivid strong colours take some beating. The pastel paper I use now is similar to fine sandpaper. There are many to try, and I use much harder pastels with this paper (although they are still soft pastels). Try different brands. The highlights of the painting are left until last and are applied with the very soft pastels.