I liked the idea, but I didn't care much for the reference photos. The way the owl loomed over the girl's shoulder felt ominous to me, and I wasn't wild about the candle element either. So I went online looking for pictures of girls/women in which they have some relationship to a bird—my preferences were to either stick with the owl, or find one with a raven or crow. I found a lot of material, but I felt that the one I chose echoed somewhat the layout and feeling of Meg's original, although the woman is cradling the owl like a friend or companion, rather than it serving as a spirit animal. It's more of a Maid Marian vibe.
I didn't see any point in using acrylics and then thinning them out to act like watercolors; why not just paint in watercolor? But for this one I chose a third option, which was to go back to my Daler Rowney acrylic inks, which I love for their liquidity as well as the intensity of their colors.
I put a wash on the sheet first and dripped on a couple colors of green as well as some raw sienna and some "red earth" color. After that dried, I drew my images in pencil and painted them, but only selectively—I wanted the background "nature" colors to show through, particularly on the girl's skin and clothing. I almost left the original background, but it was all too much of one value, so I painted over it with a thin watery layer of Payne's Grey ink, and I think the dark punches up the figures nicely.
I'm not quite thrilled with her one hand, but it's not horrible, so I'm going with it. The fingers in the picture were a little more bent to wrap around the back of the owl. I wish I had worked smaller and left a tiny border around the outside for framing, but oh well.
"La Chouette"—pencil, Daler Rowney acrylic inks, Unibal pen, white Signo gel pen, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.
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