New Oil Painting Work in Progress: Owl

I decided to do another in the American Gods series, this time the Owl. 

 

 I have the owl roughed in at this stage, this one is oil on canvas 18"x24"

Symbolic Owl Meanings:

  Wisdom
    Mystery
    Transition
    Messages
    Intelligence
    Mysticism
    Protection
    Secrets

"The owl holds a special place in the Cherokee creation myth. According to legend, Earth -- thought of as a floating island -- began as nothing but water, with all the animals living in an upper world known as Galunlati. When Galunlati became crowded, the water beetle ventured below and made islands from the mud under the water. The Great Buzzard, father of all buzzards on Earth, then came and formed valleys and mountains with the flapping of his wings. Although the Cherokee do not claim to know who made the plants and animals that came to inhabit the Earth, it is thought the animals from the upper world were told to keep watch over these newly created creatures for seven nights. Only the owl and the cougar endured this seven-day stretch, which is why they have the power to see in the dark."

Big Owl is a malicious and dangerous giant often used as a "bogeyman" in children's stories. In some Apache tribes, Big Owl also plays a more important mythological role as an early adversary of the War Twins. Like other legendary Apache beings, Big Owl is sometimes described as having human form (in this case a man-eating ogre) and other times animal form (in this case a horned owl large enough to carry off a child.)

I will keep these stories in mind as I paint my Owl and then I will name him after one of the Native American Gods.

To see the step by step photos read on after the break.

It's getting close to the Holidays, still time to order some Fine Art Prints from my website. There is a lot of new stuff there if you haven't checked it out lately.

  I started by just adding some color as an under painting on my canvas.

Then I sketched in the owl with a brush and some Raw Umber. 

Here I am starting to add some values.

A little more detail in the face and started blocking in some color on the background.

Here it is now. I am leaning to a purple/yellow color space for this one 

but it could go anywhere at this point.