[x]

Browse More Like This

More from *windfalcon

View Gallery · View Prints

Featured in Groups:

#Animal-Anatomy
Our Aim is to Help Your Aim

#BioIllustration
Art for the sake of Science

#The-Collection
a few of our favorite things!

#AllArtArtists

#Living-Earth
Every day is Earth day!

Details

Submitted: July 31, 2011
Image Size: 815 KB
Resolution: 759×950

Link

Thumb

Statistics

Comments: 37
Favourites: 423 [who?]
Views: 3,503 (6 today)
Downloads: 78 (0 today)

[x]

Deciduousby *windfalcon

Traditional Art / Paintings / Animals

EDIT: After some suggestions from *Zephyri, I made some changes to the leaves. Then I saw some other things that bothered me so I fixed those too. :3 The changes are pretty significant, which is why I'm editing this. The first version can be seen here: [link] if you're curious.

Broad-winged hawks are an under-appreciated species. These incredible little hawks migrate from the northeastern United States all the way to South America. They leave in late August and don't return until April. That is one impressive migration! They also eat pretty much anything they can get their talons on, and unlike most buteos, make their home in thick forests.

I have the pleasure of working with one of these awesome birds, and painted this through inspiration of Chico, an educational bird at Horizon Wings Raptor Rehabilitation and Education Center. Chico fell out of the nest as a chick and broke his wing in such a way that it never healed right, so he was raised as a program bird. He is one of the most expressive birds I know, and he is always the first to spot another raptor overhead. If we see Chico look up, we look up too, and most of the time there will be something soaring high above.

This is a sister piece to Coniferous - another fantasy-touched raptor painting (broad-wings do not have purple-tinged feathers in real life!), but in a leafy environment instead of evergreen.

_{Watercolor and colored pencil on cold-press Fabriano, 8 X 10 inches}