Flying High!

So, now you get to see what the first experimental base was for!

This is actually a Lord of the Rings eagle, from the Hobbit series.

It was mostly painted a while back, and I thought it wold go well with the current set of experiments.

Obviously, the trick would be in positioning this bird.  The center of gravity issue would be critical!

I hemmed and hawed over how I would attach him.  The original intention was to have a tree branch come right next to the body, and it would create a natural attachment point.

I didn't want to do that this time around, so I chose a paper clip.

By the way it is positioned, there are very few views where you really see it.  The idea is still about speed, and messing around to much with the attachment point would be counter to that cause.

I also wanted an interesting ad dramatic angle.  This is very close to the vision that I had when I began.

He is actually very solid, and the center of gravity is perfect!  I was very relieved.

All of the colors are very subtle.  You can see now why I was using so many grayish greens on the base!  I used far warmer colors on the eagle itself.

I concentrated on more intense yellows and reddish browns.  I also make the yellow on the feet as intense as I could, contrasted with a bit of deep purple in the talons.

Finally, I used  a bit of realistic water effects on the talons and beak.  I have found this to be a nice way to show a texture difference with the feathers.

This all came together very nicely.  I was very happy with the final result.  There are many more flying things like this on the way!

In these next few views, you get a better look at some of those warmer colors.

This view shows them contrasting with the grays of the base...

As does this third view from above.

Even this ground level view reveals the green vs red contrast.  I hope you like this one as much as I do!