Elf Owl Continues

Due to other pressing art matters I’ve only been able to work on this guy on and off for the past week.  It was nice to get back to him today.  Here’s a progress shot of where I ended the last time I had a chance to paint:

In order to render the feathers on the head and back, I paint the shapes and details a few shades lighter than they should be.  Then I take a thin wash of brown paint and glaze over the top of everything.  You can see the results of this first layer on the owl’s back in the picture above.  Once the glaze is dry, I rework the light spots, add mid-tone details, and then the darkest accents.  After repeating the whole process a few times, and reworking it again and again, I start to get something like this:

This is where I left off today.  I still have more work to do on the owl, and then it's on to the cactus.  After the painting is completely finished, I'll glaze over the eyes in order to lower their value and decrease their impact.  I'm leaving that for the very end so I can make the decision in the context of the entire composition.  Next time I post, you'll see the final product!