MYTHICAL CREATURE: CAT OWL

The evolution of a concept from sketch to finalized Photoshop illustration.

Following the transformation of this project, you can see the original intention of the Cat Owl (1) a cross between a cat and an owl.  Putting this in to practice, you can see in (2) the image begin to take shape.  There's a pretty big difference between foreground and background imagery, and nothing is really coming together yet. No real blending has taken place, and light sources conflict.  Here at (3) we see that that night has fallen.  This was done for two reasons- 1) it makes little sense for this owl to be out during the day, and 2) it was a cheat to aid with blending.  It's easier with working with shadows than with light because in darkness, the mind will fill in unseen details.  There's been some blending and cloning done near the feet, but if you look you can see a big gap over the right foot that needs to rectified.  By (4) the moon has come out, and it casts a glow over the image accounting for an acceptable reason for light and shadows on the trees and the creature.  The moon was a labor-intensive process because it appears behind a web of branches.  Blurring the branches (and the moon) creates an illusion that allows me to be less than precise in revealing the open spaces between the branches.  Even with the moon out, the image isn't illuminated that much, and it was discussed that the Cat Owl was maybe a bit too difficult to see because of the muted nature of the illustration.  That leads us to the final version of the Cat Owl, the first illustration in this series.  Here you can see the background has been lightened ever so much, with a slight yellow cast added.  The moon has shifted from yellow to blue (Blue Moon of Kentucky, anyone?).  Some of the features of the Cat Owl have been refined and further blended, the most notable being the addition of the markings on the creature's chest.  This is achieved by blending the chest of a long-haired kitten with chest feathers of an owl (the same owl whose top of the head I borrowed for the Cat Owl "ears").  It's not 100% what I'd like it to be, but then what ever is?

Photos used to make the completed illustration include:

Cape-Eagle Owl by Philip Fourie (Chest Feathers and Ear Tufts)

Persian Cat from Jupiterimages (Head)

kittens by Grazyna Suchecka (Chest hair)

87778071 from Jupiterimages (Body and Foreground Tree)

cat eye by ilker (Eyes)

Barking Owl by missterryw (Talons)

Foggy Wood by Miguel Saaverda (Background image)

Moon 2 by Mauro Sakamoto (Moon)

All images can be found at https://picspree.com/