I was inspired to paint this Harris hawk after seeing a “birds of prey” demonstration at the Tucson Wildlife Center. The beautiful colors of their plumage, the fierceness of the eye and the streamlined flight were inspiring to me. I started with a white clayboard and airbrushed in the blue desert sky, leaving the cactus and bird silhouettes white. India ink was carefully painted into these white areas - wherever I wished the scratching detail to go. Into this black area I began scratching in each detail with a mixture of scalpels, tattoo needles and fiberglass brushes. To achieve the luminous eye, I applied the lightest color first… scratching it back to almost white. Then the next darkest color was applied and scratched back. Seven different colors were coated and scratched back until the eye was as fierce as I remembered. The same method was applied to each feather when color was needed. The cacti were based on pictures of the plant I’d taken at the Phoenix Zoo. I enjoyed the holes in their main trunk - knowing that other birds had nests in there, also. This does not look like scratchboard, until you study the detail and fine lines of this hawk and realize this would not be possible with a watercolor medium.
