Mixed Media Owl Canvas - Bitly

Mixed Media Owl Canvas Step-by-step Tutorial

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What you will need:

this cute owl is what we are making. let’s get to it!

• 12” x 12” canvas • acrylic paints • various scraps of patterned paper • scissors • paintbrushes (including one thin and one wide) • water cup (you should always use a sturdy cup that won’t tip over) • paper towel, paper plate • gesso • matte medium • heat gun/blow dryer • black Faber-Castell Gelato, or black oil pastel • thin black marker • pencil & white eraser • stencil of your choice • ink mists (2 colours)

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1. print out owl template Print off the last page of this document containing the template for the owl body pieces. Select some pieces of patterned paper scraps from which to cut out your owl.

2. cut out owl pieces

Cut the template page into individual pieces to make it easier to cut out the shapes. Then place each piece on top of the patterned paper scrap you wish to cut that shape out of and cut around the edges. Cut out one of each template shape, with exception of the Small Feather, in which case cut out two of that shape.

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3. check your pieces

Line up your pieces next to their templates to ensure you have cut out everything you need. Ensure you have two cut out of the Small Feather, and one of everything else. Set aside your pieces for now.

4. paint your canvas background

Select one colour of acrylic paint, and squeeze a pea-sized drop onto your paper plate. Dip your large paintbrush into your water cup, and apply water to your paint to thin it out. Apply to your canvas in angled crossstrokes (draw an X over and over) until your canvas is mostly covered. You can leave white spaces if you choose; it adds to the underlying texture of your canvas. Don’t forget to paint the sides! Clean your paintbrush.

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5. adhere left wing

Using your large paintbrush, apply matte medium to the backside of the left wing cut-out. Adhere to the canvas as shown, applying more matte medium overtop if needed.

6. adhere body

In the same manner as above, adhere the body piece to your canvas. Line up the top of the wing with the top of the body piece, and cover approximately half of the wing.

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7. adhere head

Center the head piece with the body, and adhere to the canvas so that the bottom of the head piece is about halfway down the wing.

8. adhere right wing

Adhere the right wing to the canvas so that the top of the wing lines up with the top of the body/left wing. You’ll have to envision this as we covered them up with the head piece. Angle the right wing so that it is pointing down and to the right, as shown.

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9. draw facial guide 1

When drawing faces for this owl, or any other creature with eyes, it is always best to draw guides to help us determine where our facial features should lie. Start by drawing an angled “plus” sign across the head of your owl (we are drawing our owl’s face to be angled, thus the “plus” is also angled.) The vertical line should be slightly to the left of center, and the horizontal one slightly lower than center. These two lines will show us where to draw our eyes and beak.

10. draw facial guide 2

Let’s add another horizontal line to guide us in drawing our owl’s eyes. Draw the new line approximately one inch higher than the first one, and follow the same angle.

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11. draw beak

Using the crosshairs of the plus we created, draw a curved “v” to create a beak.

12. draw brows

Using the top of the beak edges as your guide, draw large eyebrows that extend far past the owl’s head and onto the canvas, as shown. It’s ok if your brows aren’t even. We aren’t aiming for perfection.

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13. draw beak top

Finish off the beak by drawing an arc from top left to top right of the original “v”.

14. draw top of eyes

Starting from the bottom horizontal line, just beside the beak, draw the top of your eyes. Follow the line you created with the brows, draw the eye to the top horizontal line, and end about 1/4 of the way down from the top horizontal line, as shown. Repeat for other eye. Try to get the eyes as even as possible, but don’t stress if it’s not perfect.

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15. draw bottom of eyes

Draw the bottom of the eyes as shown, leaving a bit of space at the top and bottom of the line representing the top of the eye.

16. draw eyelids

Starting from the inside of the eye near the beak, and leaving a bit of space from the eye top, draw a line the follows the arc of the eye top, and meets the eye top nearly all the way at the end. Repeat for the other eye.

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17. draw irises

Finish off the eyes by drawing in the iris. Make them nearly as large as the inside of the eye, but more round as though they’re nearly a circle. Do not draw overtop of the eyelid.

18. paint face with gesso

Using your small paintbrush and gesso, paint your owl’s face everywhere under the eyebrows, excluding the beak and the entire eye shape. Use generous coverage if the patterned paper you used is high contrast; you want to cover most of it up so it is mostly unseen (although a little showing through is good.)

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19. apply gesso to body & wings

Using your large paintbrush, dry brush* some gesso onto parts of your wings and body to create texture and highlight, and also to take away the starkness of a straight pattern. *Dry brushing is done by using a dry paintbrush, dipping slightly into your gesso, and applying with quick strokes to create a fiberous texture. If your brush is wet at all, this effect will not be achieved.

20. paint eyes with white Using your small paintbrush and white paint (not gesso), paint the areas of the eyelids and the whites of the eyes (the area around the iris.)

You may need to use a couple of applications to make sure it’s pure white and no pattern from the paper shows through.

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21. paint irises blue

Using your small paintbrush and blue paint (or any colour you wish your owl’s eyes to be), paint the entire iris area.

22. apply cheek blush

Squeeze out a tiny amount of pink acrylic paint onto your paper plate, and mix with a generous amount of white paint or gesso to lighten. Using your fingertip, apply some colour to your owl’s cheeks under the eyes by dabbing, all the way from one side under the eye to the other. Move onto the next step immediately, before this paint dries.

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23. blend cheeks

Using your small paintbrush, dip into fresh gesso and paint over the cheek colour you just applied in the previous step. Drag your brush in round arcs under the eyes to blend in. Apply more fresh gesso if you want to tone down the colour some more.

24. paint beak

Using orange acrylic paint and your small paintbrush, paint the owl’s beak. Using your heat gun or blow dryer, dry the owl’s face before moving on to the next step.

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25. outline beak & eyebrows

Using your small paintbrush and black paint, outline your owl’s beak, and paint the line of the eyebrows you drew earlier. Fill in the owl’s brows near the top by thickening as shown.

26. outline eyes

Outline the outside of the eyes with black paint as shown.

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27. outline eyelids

Paint in the line for your eyelids as shown.

28. outline irises & paint eyelashes

Outline the outside of the irises with black paint as shown. Paint your owl’s eyelashes by placing your paintbrush on the eyelid line where it meets the top of the iris, and making a swooping motion outward and up. Paint eyelashes all the way to the outer corner of the eye. Practice on some scrap paper first if you are unsure of how to paint the eyelashes.

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29. finish painting eyes

Here we are going to add the highlights for the eyes. Mix a small amount of the iris colour with a bit of white paint to lighten. Using your small paintbrush, apply a bit of this lightened colour to the inside of your irises as shown. Then, using fresh white paint, apply one large and one small circle inside the irises as shown. For this step, I prefer to use the back of my paintbrush rather than the bristles. It allows more control of where the paint is applied.

30. apply fingerprint “feathers”

Select a colour of acrylic paint that complements your general colour scheme. This is a colour that will highlight your owl, so choose a vibrant shade. Squeeze a bit of paint onto your paper plate, and using your fingertip, dab straight paint onto the top of your owl’s head, the top of both wings, and a little bit at the bottom tip of the right wing. For the head, do a few just outside the original head shape. These markings will represent abstract “feathers.”

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31. apply black dots

Using your small paintbrush and black paint, dab small black dots across the areas you just applied your fingerprint feathers. Do not paint outside the original shape of your owl pieces. For example, note that the black dots are only on the top of the owl’s head, not in the space above.

32. outline & draw your owl’s exterior shape

Using your black Gelato or oil pastel, draw an outline around the general shape of your owl. For the head, simply draw around the outside, but on the chin, don’t quite go all the way. For the wings, draw feathered edges on the bottom left side, and outline straight for the rest. For the body, just outline until you reach the left wing, and a bit further but not all the way to the chin.

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33. draw a branch

Using the same black Gelato or oil pastel, draw a whimsical branch for your owl to perch on. You may get creative here if you wish, but I prefer something simple that won’t take away from the owl itself.

34. apply small head feathers

Using matte medium and your large paintbrush, apply your two small feathers to your owl’s forehead as shown. PLEASE NOTE: If you feel you need to apply more matte medium overtop to seal the feathers down, ensure your paint is dry first, and avoid touching your Gelato/oil pastel. Otherwise, your colour will smudge and it probably won’t look that great.

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35. apply middle head feather

Using matte medium, apply your middle feather as shown, being careful of smudging as in the previous step.

36. apply chest feathers The last four template pieces we have are for the chest. They are random pieces, and you can apply them in any way you wish using matte medium. I didn’t use all four in my creation, but you can arrange them as you like. This is the first layer of chest pieces I applied.

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37. apply chest feathers (continued) Using matte medium, I applied one more contrasting piece overtop of my first two.

38. draw accent curls

Using your thin black marker, draw in whimsical curls around your owl and branch. Here, I have curls on both eyebrows, on the right wing, and several on the branch. You may draw curls anywhere you like.

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39. paint accents

If you have any leftover acrylic paint from your fingerprint feather step, use some of it to apply colour to your branch. Here, I have dragged a bit of red paint with my finger along random areas of my branch, and also the bottom right corner of the canvas.

40. draw extra feathers on right wing

Finish off your right wing by drawing random “w”s using your black Gelato or oil pastel. These “w”s are just more feathers we are adding to the wing. We did not do this to the left wing, only the right one.

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41. draw in head feather details

Using your thin black marker, draw vertical lines from top to bottom points on your head feathers. Draw them with a slight curve if you prefer.

42. draw in head feather details (continued) Finish off your head feathers by drawing in random angled lines, starting from the center line you drew in the previous step and moving up and outward to the edge of the feathers. You may fill in the feathers completely, or only do half as I have shown here.

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43. apply gesso

Pour a small amount of fresh gesso onto your paper plate. Using your finger, drag some gesso around random areas of your canvas, covering up some of the background you painted in the very beginning of this project. The more texture you can create, the better. Apply gesso thick in areas, and thin in others. Apply in different directions. Blend some areas with a clean fingertip if the edges seem too sharp. Gesso dries rather quickly, so don’t wait too long to blend if you are doing so.

44. spray/stencil on your first mist colour We are getting to the end, and just need to put a few finishing touches onto our canvas!

Select a stencil you like, and choose a light, contrasting colour to your original background colour. In my case, I had painted my background blue, so my first mist colour selected was golden yellow. Gently spritz through your stencil in random areas around your canvas, being careful not to hit your owl. Mask off your owl with paper towel if necessary.

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45. spray/stencil on your second mist colour Select another mist colour, this time choosing a darker, more vibrant shade that complements your colour scheme.

Gently spritz this colour, using the same stencil, in random areas on your canvas. Spray this colour in less areas than the first, also being careful to avoid your owl.

46. finished!

Congratulations, you are done! I took it one (optional) step further: I selected a yellowish-green oil pastel, and randomly scribbled in a couple of areas to “mess” it up a bit. I’d love to see your work! Post a photo of your creation on your favourite social network and tag me! I’m on the following networks: facebook.com/rednebulainc instagram.com/rednebulainc

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body

HEAD

left wing Right wing chest feather

middle feather

small feathers

chest feather

chest feather

make 2 chest feather rednebula.ca