Hawk's Progress

Well, since the last post, I've finished one wing on this Ferruginous Hawk. It goes slowly, but am feeling good about my progress.

It is always an interesting and rewarding experience to paint something new. One of the side benefits to painting realistic representations is that I learn, yet again, how to see and observe differently than before: how feathers lay, how light filters through them, how the barbs of the feathers sit, how the amazing coloration -that may seem random at first - becomes a beautiful pattern.

Birds are fascinating to me, especially. They seem so reptilian in many ways. If you imagine them without feathers, you'd see plainly one of those fast-moving ancient dinosaurs that was so pesky in "Jurassic Park." Thankfully, the birds of our current world are not at all eager to eat us.

Speaking of dinosaurs, how about Sam, after bathing. Scary, huh?