Work in Progress, Osprey: Lover's Key, Florida. Update 14

Work In Progress: Osprey: Lover’s Key, Florida Update 14

            I’m pleased that over the past week I found enough time to complete the birds in the nest. 

            The first task was to re-draw the birds. All the previous work on the nest had erased much of the details. The intricate pattern of the feathers on the female in the nest had to be reconstructed to make it realistic and so I had to take the time to draw the correct pattern.

            Once the birds were re-drawn I started in with the color on the head of the female. Using a very sharp point (and keeping it sharp) I penciled in the beak using dark sepia FC. I also used warm grey II and III, along with a bit of cloud blue on the upper part of the beak where light would cause some dull highlights. Throughout this coloring process I kept reference photos handy to get the anatomy right on the head, penciling in the details of the nostril and beak where it attaches to the head. I also used a sharp point on black FC to color in the black eye ring and pupil. The iris is pumpkin orange with cadmium yellow FC. The cadmium yellow in the iris highlights the interior of the eye, giving it a three dimensional, glowing appearance as the sun catches its edge. One thing I did wrong here was to color in the pupil first. I should have colored in the iris first. By coloring in the pupil first I had to be extra careful not to drag some black into the iris. Coloring in the lighter iris first would have made it easier to keep a sharp edge to the pupil. I was a bit over anxious to get the pupil in.

            After getting the eye in I worked the rest of the head and then the body. The wing and back feathers were colored in with raw umber FC, burnt umber FC, dark sepia FC, cream and black FC. The raw umber and cream were used to produce the highlighted areas on the feathers on the back and the parts of the wing caught by the light. Dark sepia FC, burnt umber FC and black FC, with some raw umber FC was used on the rest of the wing feathers, grading darker and darker as it wrapped around the body and away from the sunlight. I was careful to leave white here and there to show the edges of the feathers. The breast was a combination of warm grey I and II FC, French grey 30%, 50% and 70%. I also added some cloud blue to the shading mix.

            This didn’t go as smoothly as I suggest here because somewhere in the middle I realized that I had lost the pattern of the feathers on the wing. Although there is some variation in size and the pattern isn’t rigid, there is an order to the feathers. When coloring in the individual feathers I strayed from the correct pattern and had to go back over it and straighten it out. So, when coloring in wing feathers, don’t get so engrossed with the coloring that you lose sight of the pattern.

            After completing the female I used the same colors to finish up the two chicks.

            Now that the birds are pretty much completed, I’ll move on to the foliage at the bottom.