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AddictionHalfWay — Anatomy Tutorial: Owl Basics
Published: 2010-08-31 19:26:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 111527; Favourites: 3984; Downloads: 1149
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Description
This is just to give a bit of a helping hand for people who want to draw owls and want to clean up some common mistakes
I really can't stress this enough; OWLS DO NOT HAVE CROW FEET. So stop it. Just stop.
Also, many parrots have two talons x two talons and Ospreys and such.. so if you're planning on drawing ANY bird, make sure you check what their feet look like! ( Or I'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish D: )
No, there's no wings on this tutorial. Mainly because people seem to get so distracted by wings they screw up everything else. That and there's a bazillion wing tutorials out there.
A great study for helping advance owl studies is this:
[link]
Another great owl tutorial of course is this one: [link]
enjoy.
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Comments: 299
Hopefully my tutorial helps you out a bit then!
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thanks
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Thank you for doing this! I'm trying to learn how to draw owls and this is very helpful.
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I'm happy to hear it's helpful
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this is really helpful
i've never been able to draw birds but hopefully this will help me in the future!
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Lovely, I hope this will help me in the future. ^ v ^
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OUtstanding! Hey, I learned something today!
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Thanks for making this tutorial! I know my owl anatomy isn't the best, since i do more cartoony characters. But i've been looking for an owl anatomy tutorial for ages! And this is the best one out of them all! I must start practicing my owls!
And once again, thanks for making this wonderful tutorial!
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Thank you very much, I'm not working on an owl drawing, but I am drawing a dragon with talon feet, so a part of this helped a lot
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Oh, thank you very much for this Tutorial ! Yeap', it helps a lot !! ^^
I'll never draw owls with crow feet now. lol
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'draw some circles'
'draw the rest of the fucking owl'
BEST ADVICE EVER.
anyway, this is really good. it helped me understand owl anatomy alot more : )
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I wish I'd seen this BEFORE I tried to draw an owl.
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Nice second link! made my day! and I love the help i love owls! <3
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This helped so much. I kept looking up owl feet on Google but I wasn't getting any good pictures. I thought that they had two talons each side, but then in some they had three up front, so this explains why. Great tutorial. Thanks a ton for putting it up.
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What a wonderfully helpful tutorial~ I do notice poeple giving their owls poofy cheeks and breast feathers too often, good you pointed that out. Something I'd like to point out, too. You say that owls swivel their claw to face foreward, so theres 3 foreward when they strike, but owls strike with 2 foreward. They fly with 3 foreward, land, perch and strike with 2 foreward. You should maybe correct that, it could be misleading. :v But still this is an awesome tutorial, especially since its the only one for owls specificly that I've seen.
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so the only time owls have 3 talons forward is when they fly? just making sure o3o
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Hmm basicly whenever the foot is relaxed, like here. [link] So yeah, while flying. ^^ Other times as well, but most notably while flying with feet relaxed, not about to land or strike.
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oh i understand now
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Thanks
Someone else brought that up but I'm still reluctant to do so. I learned about the claws from a bird trainer. Given she was an 11 year old but she trained barn owls for Disneyland so I consider her legit 
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You know, since you are getting conflicting information from two good sources, both are probably true. Owls probably just swivel around their claw as it pleases and suits their purposes. One individual or group of individuals may prefer one use to another, but it would seem that it is not consistent across the species (plural).
As a scientist, I relize that there may be one preferred use for how an owl holds it's swiveling toe, but everything is so dynamic. Is the ability to swivel that one toe really the end of an evolutionary process? or is it just that way because owls had "crow footed" ancestors, received some selective presure to evolve zygodactyl feet, but never quite fully evolved them? (owls only have psudo-zygodactyl feet) Maybe their feet are still evolving? Maybe this is a bit off topic, but you get the point, right?
I do not think you are wrong, or your 11-year old freind, but I think the issue is a moot point.
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I suppose that's entirely possible.. After all not every lion pride attacks a zebra the same way :T so maybe owls have a little bit of individuality too @_@
Yes, I think I get what you mean ouo it's sort of like pondering why Ostriches have and will use their wings when running.
That's a weight off my shoulders xD
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XD Oh wow that is a tough choice... Well, if you look closely at pictures of owls landing or striking, you can see that they move the apposable toe back when they strike.
Now if I could find a nice ref photo....
[link] This one's good. See how the outermost front toe has swiveled back? It helps reduce the chances a prey item could escape the owl's grasp by evening out the space between talons. Think of the claw on a claw machine game.
[link] This one's also good, but I'm not sure if it's a photograph or a painting...
Generally, as far as I've seen, owls keep that toe foreward when the foot is relaxed, and swivel it back when it would help their grip.
'Course it's still your choice wether you alter this tutorial or not... I'm just acting on a pet peve of mine. 
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Oh, I assure you, I want to have the accurate information. People getting things like this off is a pet peeve of mine too so I'd hate to be encouraging it.
I see what you mean but I'm still troubled by it since those are owls landing, not killing. I'll watch some videos and look up some more pictures, maybe get a documentary to be certain on it. I'll correct the information then.
Thank you c:
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Alright, you do what you see fit. Thank you for putting the time you did into making this tutorial, and for striving to provide accurate information to the dA community. It's a great tutorial. ^^
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This owl tutorial will be of great help! Thanks for sharing this! =3
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Glad you like it c:
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Thanks for posting this! While I've never drawn owls, I've always liked them, and I plan on drawing them, so I've been looking up owl anatomy.
I don't like to butcher the animals I draw so I always try to tweak my anatomy to make them more accurate.
Thanks again, this is really helpful! C:
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I'm glad it helps out a little then ouo
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this is really good and its going to really help me draw them better
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OMG! I just about died with laughter looking at the second owl tutorial you linked to! 
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x3 thanks
Oh cool there's a word for it? xD
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Yeah, one I have a hard time remembering!
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Thanks for the how-to.....your's is the only owl tutorial on here!!!
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thanks ouo I try to do tutorials that no one else has done yet, I'm glad that's been helpful to people ^^
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thank you ouo
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