This was a true passion project. It started with me having to take a day off of snowboarding, but I still had to be at the mountain for my daughter’s lesson. So I grabbed a spot in the lodge up the mountain and decided to draw. I had no agenda but to enjoy the process and I decided to draw this beautiful barn owl I’d gotten a picture of earlier that year.
I wanted to create a unique and beautiful background and I had these various flower photos I’d taken over the years, so I decided to come up with a Photoshop compilation of them and add some unique colors/effects. Once that was complete, I started my process of drawing them in my hyper realistic colored pencil effect.
I think my favorite bit is the top right flower that turned out super bright – reminds me of a moon. Not to mention that flower was from a friend who brought me a bouquet from her flower shop in Santa Fe, NM (yes – she brought them all the way from Santa Fe to Steamboat!)
And being that the owl traveled to Steamboat to help educate the public on owls, I thought I’d share one of the key important pieces of information I learned. NEVER use poison pellets to kill mice. The mice eat them and then don’t die immediately, so they go back outside and if a barn owl catches them the owl will DIE. The poison is super lethal for owls. So please consider ditching the pellets to save the owls.
Fun side note: After just barely starting the owl, I decided to use it for a contest for some neck gaitors for skiing. I didn’t win, but it did make it to the final voting round which was really fun!
