Barrys Drawing Task – Final Outcome Owl

In this lesson we were asked to create a couple drawings that follow our Final Major Project themes. My theme is functions and senses of the body. Initially I set out to achieve a range of 2-3 drawings following my theme, however, this piece took between 12-15 hours to complete so I decided to only do this drawing for this task. Although I am aiming to do more drawings for this project in the coming weeks.

I chose the following image to draw from. The reason I chose this image is because I had drawn from it before, therefore, I wanted to create another style of drawing from it. I also chose this image because it focusses mainly on the facial features of the owl, which links to my theme.

I started out by sketching the basic lines of the owls face with a pencil into my sketch book. At this point I was unsure as to what method of drawing I was wanting to do to create this piece, however I had recently seen a pointillism piece on social media which I knew I wanted to attempt in my own work, so I chose to use this method.

I used a black fine liner pen to begin creating lots of clustered dots. I began by following the pencil lines and creating thick dark lines to outline the face. I made a really dark patch for the eye, with a small white spot left in it for a light reflection. I chose to do half the piece at a time, that way I could perfect one side, then repeat my technique on the other side.

This image shows the dot work, within the eye, up close:

Then I began to create tone in and around the eye, by adding dots either clustered together to create darker patches, or spreading them out to create lighter patches.

Once I had completed the eye and nose, I wondered how the main face work had been created by other artists using pointillism so I researched a little bit and found this image. I used this image to inspire me when adding dots to the face of my owl.

Here are some images that further show the development of the piece:

When filling in the large areas of repeating tone I added in grids like the one below. The reason why I did this was because it visually broke up the space making it look less daunting and off putting. I was able to fill each square in at a time which helped me to maintain focus and complete the piece.

Here is the finished piece:

I am really happy with the final outcome of this drawing. I find using stippling a really effective method for creating and adding tone to a piece as it is so time consuming it is easy to see tone appearing, and being able to add to it really easily. I think this piece looks realistic and I am very proud of it.

I also enjoyed creating this piece because I was able to see it develop gradually, and I had to take my time which made me value the final piece more due to the amount of time it took. I would like to use this technique again in my work, however I am unsure as to how I can incorporate it into my final major project as it is so time consuming therefore if I am to use this method, it will be on a minimal scale.

I believe this piece was successful and it certainly encouraged me to create more of my own drawings as I found pleasure and pride in creating this drawing.