Barn owl in watercolor

This is from a previous Patreon video. For the most current tutorials, please visit https://www.patreon.com/andreanelson For this tutorial, we're going to utilize a reference photo, but we're not going to stick to it completely. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately as I have gone back to basics in my own quest to become a better painter. How much do I use the information that I see in a reference photo and how much do I make up or interpret in my own way. Because while it's very impressive, for me, the best art isn't photo realistic. I like to find things that are a little different or unexpected. That's the humanity that an artist brings. So for this tutorial, you will see that I make a lot of choices that vary from the reference, but I do refer to the reference quite a bit. I'm providing three different reference options below because any one of them could be used for this tutorial. Pick the one that appeals to you! And I already know that the painting of the eyes is more complex than a lot of what we do on here, and some of you may find them difficult. If that is the case, you can always paint them completely dark and add highlights with colored pencils and pen. I just wanted to show you a more advanced way of approaching them. Supplies are from my Website https://www.cozylark.com/