The Red Owl is in fact my Blue Owl from last year, transformed into a vibrant creature dressed in reds ... though still retaining that slightly bored, slightly grumpy expression I've become quite fond of.
I'd originally planned on just adjusting hues and saturations in Photoshop and leaving it at that, but of course I wasn't quite satisfied with the result, so I ended up dragging it into Corel Painter 12 and doing a huge repainting job with their oil brushes. Glad I did, as I quite like the end result. Took it back into photoshop to fiddle a bit more and add the drop shadow, and here you have it.
I then drew and added the graduation cap, as it just seemed right. The final result is a bright creature, extremely intellectual (as owls are), and slightly cynical (with dollops of humour). But happy. Honest.
If you'd like to peek at the original Blue Owl, it's over at: http://www.floatinglemons.com/2011/02/blue-owl-bee-happy-daisies.html. Cheers!
RED OWL cards and matching gifts are over at:
Red Owl at FLoating Lemons Illustration @ Zazzle, and
RED OWL GRAD graduation cards, invitations and matching goodies is up at:
Red Owl Grad at Floating Lemons Events @ Zazzle
