Today I had a chance to work on the owl painting. The goal for this session was to darken the left corner to give more shadow, and to add shadow to the hills of the background. Also, part of the function for this layer of paint was to help add more coverage to the canvas.
The canvas is a gesso board. I prefer working on these boards than a stretched canvas. Size is 11″ x 14″, which is a comfortable size to work on to me.
Here’s how it looked when I started vs finished for today:


Depth of Field
This one has more than a background and foreground. It also has a back-middle and a middle-middle, lol. The sky is the background. What I’m calling the back-middle includes the hills and field behind the fence. The middle-middle is the fence, ground, and trees along the fence line.
And then the foreground will be the owl and the branch it’s on, as well as the grass and leaves beneath its feet.
I have not begun to work on the trees or owl yet other than the initial sketch-in. At the rate I’m going, it’s going to be a while before I get to that point. There is still the back-middle ground and fence to do first. Maybe some of the trees can go in when I do the fence.
Open Studio Video
There’s a video of my time in the office/studio today at YouTube, if you’d like to see the progress in motion:
Until next time!
More Posts about this Painting

Do you want to:
- learn how to make paints from rocks, soil, or clay?
- Begin Nature Journaling?
- Take virtual plant walks?
- Create nature art or crafts?
Interested in forming a partnership with nature to create art?



