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AddictionHalfWay — Anatomy Tutorial: Owl Basics
Published: 2010-08-31 19:26:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 111519; Favourites: 3984; Downloads: 1148
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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
Yes, style is important and I love when people have their own unique styles.. But just as you said, there are slip ups that show the artist is either lazy or just needs to continue practicing their anatomy. It'd be nice if so many of them didn't feel like they needed to cover up their need to improve by saying it's style.
Thank you c:
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OMG I never knew owls had 2 talons in the front XD. I never really studied anatomy, so I went by other people's pictures XD
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Thank you so much for making this tutorial.
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Glad you like it
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Thanks for the tutorial. I was getting the tail wrong.
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Glad to have helped c:
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This helps a lot. I'm one of those morons that make crow feet on them. ): I'll fix all my sketches.
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one last thing...(sry for all the coments i just keep forgeting things) owls don't really have the abbility to move their eyes....yea i thought the same thing but hell with that idea.
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Yeah they don't, but I didn't put anything like that in the tutorial because I'm a cartoonist and the ability to move eyes is the one thing that I still keep no matter what (and apparently the gahoole movie will be keeping as well)
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yep i thouught so too...watch the movie
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btw thanks for the tutorial i've been pulling my hair out trying to draw owls.
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Glad to have helped c:
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you should watch the movie legend of the guardians and trust me when i say this, movie=you saying "AWSOME BEYOND FREAKING WORDS!" i just came back from the film I was just blown away srsly! if you think owl are awsome you should get a load of LotG! WOOT!
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Yeah I really like LotG n_n
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Bird boobs. XD
Nice tutorial. I've taken a sudden interest in owls, so I'll probably be drawing them soon. You probably just saved me from some anatomy errors. Thanks!
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xD
Glad I could help!
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<.< Hmm, I find it odd I remember mentioning Great Horned Owls and Barn Owls both to someone and I see both in this. You're a phycic!
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o0o!
I love Barn owls and Eagle Owls >u<
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OMG I LOVE THAT SECOND OWL ANATOMY! xD
That made my day
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xD the eagle owl?
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yes. Its just inspiration.
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Thank you so much for posting! This is just so helpful * w *
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Thank you very much! I've been trying to learn how to draw owls and using refs didn't help as much, so this is just what I need <3
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This is very helpful, especially the parts about the talons/feet.
Thank you. c:
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This is a very nice and helpful tutorial (and great job on the Barn Owls 
The feet aren't shaped like that; the toes are all equal in length, the foot isn't that wide, and the sole of the foot isn't very muscular, it just has a little padding. The talons are also a lot skinnier, longer, and more curved. And for the most part, the legs are a lot thinner as well. Also, the drawing of the foot with three talons facing forward looks too mammalian, in owls the ankle area would be thinner and the ankle doesn't curve like a human wrist; the toes should be wider than the ankle, the back claw points directly back (and touches the sole of the foot when it's held in a fist position) , and the outer front toe can face backwards. (Owls hold three toes in front while flying, but perch and catch and hold prey with two forward and one back, so that information is also incorrect)
The beaks are also the wrong shape. Owl beaks are shaped just like hawks in Strigid species and are a bit more vulture-like in Tytonid species ([link] is an example, for lack of anything better to refer you to >>)
Also, Barn Owls live in any region except polar regions and deserts. And (because I'm not sure how big a 10 pound dog is xD) Barn Owls are the size of ravens.
I wouldn't say this is accurate in details, but it definitely is a great starter and does point out common errors, so for that I commend you
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Thank you for the critique C:
Actually, I got my talon-related information from a family of falconers. They owned an Eagle Owl and a Barn Owl (among others but I didn't get to draw those ones). They told me they only like to move their toe forward when positioning themselves for prey. So I'm afraid I won't take that information down ono
But that anatomy stuff is helpful, thank you c: Although I think some owls have fatty feet and others don't.. But yeah I did draw some of those feet looking a little weird e__e I'm definitely still working to improve my owls and it's kind of epic that there's someone around that knows owls like you xD Luckily this tutorial is really only for beginners and in a cartoon style, so if anyone really wants to advance and really grind into owl anatomy they'll hopefully be figuring that stuff out on their own.
I used photographs of beaks for the drawings though o__o... I must have messed up a little without noticing. The main point was to show that they aren't these little triangles but fgdgdl i love that reference thing of yours, it's helpful for me advancing |D
Oh crap xD I must have read wrong when researching, I'll change that. Yeah, I never met a raven up close though. But the barn owl I met was a female and she was about the size of a shaved Pomeranian. My step mom has a 10 pound dog so I decided on that measurement over comparing it to my parrots since most of the people who watch me know dogs more than they know birds.
Thanks so much for this comment ;o; I'm going to change some of that barn owl information. Yeah, it's mostly intended for like people who are always drawing dogs and then the Ga'hoole movie is coming out so now I'm watching people draw like...really odd looking owls. Weird stuff. I like your reference, do you mind if I link some of your gallery stuff for people who want to advance past what mine says?
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I promise you, they often hold three toes forward while flying (though sometimes they fly with two forward, there's not really a rule as to how owls position their feet) The entire idea when striking or landing at a fast speed, though, is to spread the talons as wide apart as possible, which means two toes face forward and two face backwards (or the flexible outer talon is at an angle to the side in order to fill in empty space, which, depending on your perspective, you may consider to be pointing forward, so I'm not saying the falconers were lying when they said that) Three toes facing directly forward, though, would leave only one talon to grip the prey from behind and make a moving target harder to hit since the talons won't spread out over as great an area and harder to grip since the majority of the foot strength will be concentrated in the front. I've been to many falconry displays and bird shows and have seen it for myself, but if you don't believe me (which would be smart, since there's a lot of weird people on the web xP), here's an official source: [link] and a photograph: [link]
(Basically, there's not a definite "owls only hold three forward in this situation, and never hold two back when they're doing this other thing...", they swivel their outer toe to whichever direction they want, whenever they want to xP)
Yes, I agree, this tutorial is great at pointing out common mistakes artists make and explaining how to fix them, so it's definitely useful 
Thanks, I'm glad my reference helped xP
And all I was pointing out with the raven comparison is that I'm not quite sure if all 10-pound dogs are the same size, whereas ravens have a definite size range that's very similar to Barn Owls'.
I don't mind at all if you link my stuff, it surprized me when I read that xD Thank you for asking C:
(actually, what part of my gallery are you going to link to? I have a bit of crappy stuff...
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Wiggy.
Well then at the very least their owls were common to doing it. I don't think that they'd always have it in position for prey, but for particular prey. idk. I'm not changing it, but at least I won't get so >:c when people do the toes wrong.
Yeah I changed it to say "10 pound dog or a raven", whichever makes more sense to the reader.
The owl stuff-learning stuff? Particularly that head study.
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Well, the head study was the only owl stuff-learning thing that I've done xP
If you want to link to some more, I'm fine with you using my sleeping Barn Owl sketch, Eurasian Eagle Owl, or Long-Eared Owl. C:
(There are drawings and photographs on here that are better references than mine, though.)
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Yeah I noticed that once I looked but I'm adding it to my description
merci c:
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*end of the second paragraph, that should be two forward and two back Dx But hopefully you caught that and understood what I was trying to say...
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This is a very nice and helpful tutorial (and great job on the Barn Owls
The feet aren't shaped like that; the toes are all equal in length, the foot isn't that wide, and the sole of the foot isn't very muscular, it just has a little padding. The talons are also a lot skinnier, longer, and more curved. And for the most part, the legs are a lot thinner as well. Also, the drawing of the foot with three talons facing forward looks too mammalian, in owls the ankle area would be thinner and the ankle doesn't curve like a human wrist; the toes should be wider than the ankle, the back claw points directly back (and touches the sole of the foot when it's held in a fist position) , and the outer front toe can face backwards. (Owls hold three toes in front while flying, but perch and catch and hold prey with two forward and one back, so that information is also incorrect)
The beaks are also the wrong shape. Owl beaks are shaped just like hawks in Strigid species and are a bit more vulture-like in Tytonid species ([link] is an example, for lack of anything better to refer you to >>)
Also, Barn Owls live in any region except polar regions and deserts. And (because I'm not sure how big a 10 pound dog is xD) Barn Owls are the size of ravens.
I wouldn't say this is accurate in details, but it definitely is a great starter and does point out common errors, so for that I commend you
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Crap, my computer glitched >> Sorry for the double-post.
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oh my, this is a great help. Thankyou c:
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Glad to hear!
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Sweet tutorial you've got here
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Good tutorial! They always remind me of a little loaf of bread tipped up on it's end when they're perched ^^
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