How to Draw an Owl

Hi everyone, and welcome to this tutorial video. In this video I'm going to be showing you how I draw an owl. In this example I'm using a mechanical pencil, but you don't have to use that, you can use any kind of pencil. I recommend HB or 2B, and maybe a 6B pencil for some of the darker tones. I also recommend a blending stick, as it can really help when you want to add some smoother shading. If you don't have a blending stick then you can just use your finger. I'll also mention that in this video I'm drawing on a smooth bristol board. To start off, before drawing any of the outlines, I like to draw a vertical line to help with the symmetry. And then I draw a horizontal line to help with the alignment of the eyes. Once those lines were laid down, it was time to start with the outlines. I started off with what you'd call the eyebrows, just some diagonal lines going above the eyes. Then I drew the eyes themselves. They're almost completely circular, but with a flat line on top. They're about 1.5 eyes width apart. I should also mention that the eyebrows and the top of the beak are in alignment with the bottom of the eyes. After that, I drew the outlines of the beak. This is made much easier when you have the vertical line already drawn. And then it was time to start plotting where the different layers of feathers would be added. There's a couple of lines underneath the eyes, and there's some feathers alongside the beak, and a full circular layer of feathers going outwards from the eyes themselves. And then after that, it's time to add the outlines of the owl's head itself. And the ears are in line and actually connected to the eyebrows. And now, with the outlines drawn, it's time to add the shading. I always like to start off the shading with the eyes, as they're my favourite part to draw. I started off by adding a dark outline to the underside of the eye, and then I added the dark shading to the pupil as well, but I made sure to leave a highlight. I think highlights are incredibly important for eyes, and they really help to bring your drawing to life. And then I added some basic shading to the iris, and blended it across with the blending stick, making sure to leave the lower parts of the eye a little bit lighter, and adding some darker shading to the tops of the eye and underneath the eyebrow. Once the shading had been added to both eyes, I started adding some shading to the ridge underneath the eye, and above the eye as well, but I made sure to leave a layer of white feathers around the eye. So then it was time to add some shading outwards from the eye, treating the eyes themselves as the centre, and then drawing the feathers outwards from them. For this, I used quick, sharp strokes with the pencil. It's important not to think too much about the placement of feathers, as feathers on an owl are always going to be moving and changing. So you can loosen your grip on the pencil and actually build up the layers of the feathers with just quick, sharp strokes outwards from the eyes. At this point, I also used the blending stick to help blend the shading outwards from the underside of the eye. After that, I added some shading to the beak, and I made sure to leave some white highlights outlined around the edges of the beak to help it stand out against the background of feathers. And then I worked on the layer of lighter feathers around the beak, and these feathers actually kind of look like a moustache. With most of the details of the face shaded, it's time to move on to the top part of the head, starting from the upper part of the beak. As you can see in this example, I built up layers of dark shading in kind of a speckled pattern, and then I blended between them with a blending stick, and it gave this kind of layered effect of feathers starting from the beak and travelling upwards towards the top of the head. And remember that at any point you can use the eraser to help add some highlights. As you continue to add the details towards the top of the head, you don't have to focus so much on the details because you kind of want the details to remain on the face, and so you can draw the attention towards the details that you've added to the eyes and the beak. And along the edges of the eyebrows, there's a layer of white feathers, and then they build up towards some really dark black feathers just above the eyes. And you can continue to add the layers of dark feathers going upwards towards the top of the ears. I also made sure to add some darker shading to the insides of the ears themselves. Then it was time to go back to add more details to the outer edges of the face, starting by adding a darker outline of feathers around the outside of the circular areas that we already shaded. And to help blend them across, I used the blending stick. Outwards from that, I used the speckled effect of feathers that I used at the top of the head, by just creating the speckled pattern and then blending over the top of it with the blending stick. With the details of the face and the head shaded, it was time to start adding layers of feathers going downwards from those. And I kind of used the same principle of just adding layers of speckled effect with the pencil, and then blending over the top of them with the blending stick. And you'll be able to see when I start to add the shading and the feathers to the chest, this effect can work very well, especially with the inclusion of using a bit of the eraser. It's a really simple and effective way of creating a layered, feathered effect. I really hope this video was helpful in some way, and if you've followed this video along, or if you've worked on anything similar, then feel free to show me your work on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram. If you enjoy drawing videos, or if you want to learn more about how to draw, then feel free to subscribe to my channel, and any likes or shares on this video are hugely appreciated, it means so much to me and it really helps the channel out. If you want to follow me on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, and follow along with the progress photos throughout the week, then be sure to check out the links in the description box below. And once again, thank you so much for the support on this channel, it really means a lot to me, and working on these videos is so much fun. Thanks for watching this video, and I'll see you all soon.