Falcon's Eye

TITLE: "Hawk's Eye"
MEDIA: "Pencil Illustration"
YEAR: 1994 & 2006
BACKGROUND:
A Hawk or Falcon spreading it's wings in flight as it swoops down on unsuspecting prey. Orriginally a form study and sketch for a bald eagle commissioned piece. The head wasn't quite right for an Eagle, and more resembled a hawk or falcon to me, so I had abandoned the piece and moved on to other attempts. Still, it wasn't half bad, so I recently decided to finish it. Some visually reference was used back in the 90's when I had started the piece, to get the shape of the head, but none was used when detailing and finishing the wings recently. There are a few minor errors, but overall I am quite happy with this piece.

This image was created with a combination of a Number two, hard lead pencil, and a .05mm core Technical Pencil. The image was created on a fine tooth drawing surface, 20lb., Loose Leaf, Typing Paper. The orriginal image is 8.5 x 11 inches. This image was first started in 1994, and sat, unfinished, as nothing more than a loose sketch and form study for over a decade. I recently decided to make it more final, and have tried to keep the overall feel of the orriginal work, while giving a more detailed and illustrated look. I am quite pleased with the end result, and believe it is difficult to see where work was orriginally halted, or where I switched from No. 2 to Technical pencil. I do consider it a work worthy of my overall portfolio and gallery. This work uses a much looser and more freestyle method of shading and detail than a lot of my other works, bridging the gap between sketch and illustration. All in all it took maybe 4-5 hours (actual time unknown).