A great horned owl with huge round eyes perches on an oak branch dotted with leaves and acorns while a crescent moon and a scatter of stars fill the sky. Its feathers, arranged in rows like scales, make this one of the most rewarding pages for practicing gradients.
The owl faces forward with talons wrapped around the branch and wings folded, and two tufts of feathers rise above its head like horns. The chest is built from small feathers in rows, the wings carry longer ones, and the face forms two discs around the eyes. Around the bird are oak leaves, acorns and, above, a night sky with a thin moon and little stars.
It goes over well from ten to fourteen. Although it has many feathers, they are all of one kind, so once you understand the repetition you move quickly. It is a good training sheet for learning to blend color inside small spaces, and a favorite among kids who are fans of the night.
Download the PDF in your size and keep it at one hundred percent. Fine feathers look best in normal or high print quality. Choose smooth paper of medium or heavy weight so you can shade with colored pencils without the grain of the sheet showing too much.
Warm brown plumage against a deep blue sky makes a classic contrast. To bring the eyes to life, color them yellow with an orange ring and leave a tiny dot of white paper as a sparkle. For something fantastical, try a purple owl with feathers in four different colors under a sky full of yellow stars.
The sky on this page invites a small experiment with dark colors. Try layering navy, violet and a hint of teal, always in light coats, and leave the stars white or pale yellow. The crescent moon can stay unpainted or take a very pale yellow, and a light blue halo around it helps it look luminous. Against a sky this deep, the owl's warm feathers stand out even more.
Give each feather a short gradient, darker at the base and lighter at the tip. If you repeat the motion across the whole row, the layered effect appears on its own, and the feathers need not be identical.
It depends on the species: great horned owls have yellow or orange eyes, while barn owls have dark ones. A yellow eye with an orange ring and a black pupil works great on this page.
Yes, provided you print on thick paper. Paint the sky first, let it dry completely, and then color the owl with pencils on top. That way moisture does not wrinkle the areas with fine feathers.
