Hawk

Every Day Matters #125 - draw a bird. Mechanical pencil, colored pencil. Nov. 3, 2012.

I was leery of doing this original photograph, it looked too complicated and finely detailed. I started with the eye and beak and got the proportion right, then added the feather areas. It really came to life when I decided I could smudge the pencil to create the gray tone, and give contrast to the white feathers around his face. There is one small yellow feather on his cheek, and rust on his shoulder. "Photograph taken at the Cascade Raptor Center, Eugene, Oregon. We visited last year with friends, and it was a great place. They rescue, rehab, and release raptors, eagles, hawks, osprey, owls and falcons. They also have birds too injured to release. You walk through a quiet woodland trails, the they have huge aviaries for individual birds. It is a peaceful place to be.