This is the design I entered to decorate an owl sculpture for the Big Hoot, a large scale art event across the streets of Birmingham in 2015. The brief was very open, the design could be based on anything to do with Birmingham, or owls, or really anything at all that you fancied (so long as it wouldn't cause offense!)
I started by researching things to do with Birmingham. I had no idea just how many interesting things were connected to the city, or how many inventions were created there. I ended up with quite a long list, and didn't really want to leave any out. The postage stamp was invented in Birmingham and covering my owl in stamps gave me the perfect excuse to include them all.
I worked on decorating my owl at home, in my living room. I got used to having him about and had a bit of empty nest syndrome once he was taken away.
The stamps are based on: Birmingham Sea life centre had Olive the psychic octopus (I think she was inspired by Paul the octopus that predicted the world cup scores).
Birmingham also has an International Military Tattoo (that the little owl stamp is dressed up for).
The other owl is dressed as Sherlock Holmes as Arthur Conan Doyle lived here when he had his first work published.
The wizard is there as the writer of Lord of the rings JRR Tolkien spent his childhood here.
Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park has Capybaras (I love these giant guinea pigs).
The satellite dish is there as a key component of radar was created here.
What big eyes he has.......all the better to see you with!
My owl has a canal boat on his head as Birmingham is also known as 'canal city' (it has more canals than Venice)
Two great bands from Birmingham, Dexys Midnight Runners and Black Sabbath (I had 'Come on Eileen' as an earworm for sometime painting this).
Also did you know there is a crater on the moon called Birmingham?
The tower at the bottom is Perrott's Folly, which JRR Tolkien lived near as a child and said it inspired his novels (it isn't actually white, that was a bit of artistic licence on my part-you could say the magical lightening flashes are turning it white).
The first x-ray was taken in Birmingham too.
There used to be a King Kong statue outside the old bull ring shopping centre, he looked great from the photos of him I've seen, so I had to include him.
Novacon is an annual science fiction convention that started in Birmingham in 1971 (I'm sure a dalek must've attended at some point)
To me the bull statue at the new bull ring centre looks a bit miffed. I think he gets a bit tired of all the tourists wanting to have their picture taken with him, but it's his own fault for looking so great.
Birmingham planetarium is definitely worth a visit.
The University of Birmingham has a robotics laboratory, you can also see some great robots at the Thinktank science museum.
This lizard is a Blue-Tongued Skink (one of the best names I've ever heard so I had to include it just for that), it lives at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park
The top one on the side is a sculpture at Moseley Bog, a place that is said to have inspired the Old Forest in Lord of the Rings
You can find the Emperor Monkey at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park too (who could resist a monkey with a moustache?!)
Birmingham's Castle Bromwich factory produced over 10,000 Spitfires, including the one at the Thinktank science museum.
I have added some work in progress photos below too
But it felt a bit slow so I alternated between colours in the end and it made him come to life a little quicker.
I started by adding all the areas of the same colour at the same time, one by one.
Once I had all the sketching out done I could start with the blocks of colour. Each colour took a few layers to properly apply, but it was a nice smooth surface to work on and quite therapeutic.
After working out what was going where, I started drawing in pencil. The drawing flowed quite nicely but the frilly edges were slightly troublesome at first.
There's a big difference between drawing on a flat A4 design and painting a curved owl that's bigger than you, so I spent a bit of time working out layout and sizes. The original paper template was front and back only, but I'd had some extra stamp designs I'd had to leave off, so I was happy to add them back on again to the sides of my owl.
Unwrapping my owl in my living room, such a lovely blank canvas to work with!
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