Over the last week I’ve worked on the Red Tailed Hawk sign in production. One thing I’ve noticed is that with these more organic styles, each sign is truly unique. We aren’t talking about a mild change of alignment or color shift.
While I try hard to keep the essentials the same, the cloud formations came out a bit different on each sign, and the same brush can have a very different impact on an 8″ diameter sign than on a 16″ diameter sign! The process I worked with was quite layer intensive, first painting in the background and the rays, then adding clouds, then the basic shapes of the hawk characters and perch, layering in shading and creating dimension, and finally adding the detail work for the feathers. So. Many. Tiny. Dashes.