Sustained Investigation #7

Forest Owlet

For this project, I researched birds of prey that are considered endangered. I found the Forest Owlet. This breed of owl is found in India. Their habitat is being destroyed by illegal deforestation.

I sketched out the owl using a pencil on 11"x13" paper. I wanted to attempt something different this time for color. I worked with only colored pencils which is a different medium for me. I enjoyed trying this and like how my work turned out. I need to work on how to burnish correctly for my shading. I worked on a couple of different ideas on how to present the owl due to the reasons they are considered endangered. I decided that presenting the owl in a tree that has been damaged from logging would be the best way to show my owl.

With illegal deforestation being the biggest reason that this species is considered endangered I wanted to be able to show that in my project. I originally only had the owl sitting in a tree in the original sketch. When I looked at it, I knew it needed more to show the full effect of what is being done to the forest and why it is affecting the owls so much. Adding in more trees that have been cut shows how hard it would be for the owls to make nests or even just hide so they would be able to hunt.