This week’s picture is a wise OWL, using PRISMACOLOR MARKERS as the medium.
In this picture, your child explored:
- Creating depth and realism by layering color and shading with markers
- Using repetition of shape and pattern
- Creating pattern and texture with lines and shading
Fun Facts about Owls:
- Throughout history, owls have been a part of human folklore and legend. They have been found depicted in cave paintings in France dating back as far as 20,000 years ago. They were also used in Egyptian hieroglyphics. They have represented a wide variety of symbols, ranging from misfortune and death to prosperity and wisdom.
- Owls’ eyes are fixed in their sockets. To look around they have to move their entire head. They have extra vertebrate in their spines that allow them to turn their head three-quarters of the way around.
- The color of owl eyes indicate what time of day the owl hunts in; owls with dark eyes hunt at night; orange eyes indicate dawn or dusk hunters, and yellow-eyed owls hunt during the day.
- Owls can make a wide variety of sounds. The owl uses its familiar “hoot” noise to declare its territory, though not all species can actually hoot. Other sounds include screeches, hisses, and screams.
- Many owls have special flight feathers which enable them to fly in almost complete silence.
- Most owls don’t make their own nests; instead they often “squat” in tree cavities or old crow, raven, or hawk nests. The tiny Elf Owl usually nests in woodpecker holes dug into large cactus plants.
- The smallest owl is the Elf Owl; it is 5-6 inches tall and weighs about 1.5 ounces. The Great Horned Owls weigh about 4 pounds. Its eyes weigh almost an ounce – more than the eyes of a 200 pound human!
- Owls lack the senses of smell and taste – which allows the Great Horned Owl to regularly make a meal of skunk.
- Owls possess acute sense of hearing; their unevenly aligned ears augment their ability to receive sound. Most owls can hunt in complete darkness, and are even able to hear and catch small animals moving beneath snow.
- Owls mate for life, but because they have an innate fear of one another, it takes a lot of time and courage to proceed through courtship.
Look at these pictures of various representations of owls in art:
This owl was drawn with just two lines, similar to the owls often represented in hieroglyphs.
This owl depicts a familiar modern representation of owls as wise and scholarly.
- This humorous drawing also reflects the popular impression of owls as wise leaders. (Drawing by Andreas Bloch.)
This drawing portrays another concept of the owl: cute and whimsical.This stone owl represents bravery, strength, and wisdom.
Using Prismacolor Markers: