I wouldn’t like to give that owl the wrong password!
I was messing around with the filters on my drawing and this is the result. I am not sure that I prefer the effect in general but for this owl it seems to give a nice texture. I removed the texture from the eyes and tongue to keep them glossy looking. (Thanks for the idea my friend!) Anyway, I’d love to hear what you think!
In the meantime, check out this comic from Nedroid… He’s got my training program at the moment beautifully expressed! (Well, minus the hover text – lol)
UPDATE: This just in – new poem from Tom in the comments capturing the essence of owlness…
In every wood there are a few who watch:
the Guardians, who stand before the gates
where forest touches field.
Old Owl is one, sharp-eyed and sharp of beak,
who challenges the night with screeching calls,
stands firm and will not yield.
The secrets of the trees are safe and sound
while Owl watches all that moves below
her high arboreal lair.
Then she takes wing and falls in silent flight
across the dusky sky to dawn patrol
the Portals of the Air.
Copyright (C) 2010 Tom Radcliffe
ANOTHER UPDATE: Do check the comments if you think you might be amused by another poem from Tom – this one in comic free verse form… I think it’s just been invented…
image (cc) 2010 Hilary Farmer
Green Tea Doodles 
I like this.
I think it because they have these huge hunter eyes
Thanks! Yes, they can be mesmerizing! Poor mousie will be sucked in…
In every wood there are a few who watch:
the Guardians, who stand before the gates
where forest touches field.
Old Owl is one, sharp-eyed and sharp of beak,
who challenges the night with screeching calls,
stands firm and will not yield.
The secrets of the trees are safe and sound
while Owl watches all that moves below
her high arboreal lair.
Then she takes wing and falls in silent flight
across the dusky sky to dawn patrol
the Portals of the Air.
Copyright (C) 2010 Tom Radcliffe
I’ve seen a very self-assured snowy owl in daylight at the Cataraqui sugar bush, and a great horned owl cruising over the fields of fresh-cut hay at dusk, giving the truth to mountain stories of witches riding on their backs. This owl is wonderfully evocative of those, and I’ve tried to capture a bit of that in the poem.
And hey, that’s been my workout for the past few months too! I never considered it the logical end of the progression I was on.
Lovely and evocative Tom! I am always amazed that your form can be so varied! Yet another rhyme scheme!!
One of these days I’ll write something in the post-modern “confessional free verse/prose with funny line breaks” style just to really shock you:
Ornithologists aren’t entire sure if owls
belong
to the family of Thucididae or some sister branch; perhaps
the Herotodids or that
dark biblical sibling
known variously
by odd initials:
E, P, R or some such. In any
case
this morning when I woke up to
the feeling of sharp claws upon my nose it
might have been
might have been
might have been
an owl
but alas
It was just a cat.
😛
For extra credit: spot the classical allusions and the modern (possibly even quantum) ones! There are a good half-dozen. This sort of thing is particularly important in this kind of poetry as most of the people who are pretty sure it’s not poetry at all (its rhythmical structure doesn’t dominate its grammatical structure) will be intimidated by their ignorance of the allusions into shutting up.
Which is not to say there can’t be good poetry with less formal structure than my typical stuff, and lots of formal poetry is dreadful, but I lament that in many circles only confessional free verse is considered acceptable as poetry, which is far more rigid and exclusionary than any formalist school has ever been.
Rant rant rant! 😀
I think you just did – that’s hilarious… and yet it might, it might be poetry…