For Animals, People, and Those In Between this week we were asked to create a character study for the animal we sketched last week. I’m happier with the idea of Ole as a silhouette, but trying out the Wacom tablet and creating a few line drawings in Illustrator was a fun challenge. Here are a few details on Ole, the Great Horned Owl:

Character Name:
Ole

Species:
Great Horned Owl (Bubo Virginianus)

Age:
Unknown. Not young.

Appearance:
Enormous (as big as a house, a mountain, a sofa, a cloud).
Speckled brown feathers, white at throat and chest.
Yellow eyes.
Large black claws on tawny feathered feet.
Dark, curved, sharp beak.
Large ear tufts.

Distinctive Traits:
So enormous he is liable to be mistaken for part of the scenery.
Never speaks, rarely hoots.
Extremely intelligent.
Very protective of friends.
Apparently capable of horrific violence, although his presence is so intimidating that he rarely needs to lift a wing.
Smells like Douglass Fir, hay, pepper, mushrooms, and dirt.
Stoic.
Fickle.
Fastidious, but often dusty.
Secretly enjoys a good cuddle or ear scratch.
Hums to himself when no one is listening.
Excellent organizational skills as evidenced by his ornate arrangements of pebble mandalas.
Sometimes perceived as a shadow.
Disappears for months at a time.
Terribly mysterious.

Family Background:
Uncertain. Supposedly hatched from the nut of a gingko tree in the middle of winter.

Possessions:
None. But he knows where there is an old kettle he can use if he needs to make some tea.

Residence:
Unknown. Frequently seen flying from the direction of Red Hook.
Also sighted near Anacortes, Washington, and outside of Gstaad, Switzerland.