This painting started out as a Valentine’s Day present for my wife, who loves owls. It took a while to work out how to draw owls who look distinctly male and female, but I worked it out eventually through size and the the indication of eyelashes of the female. Here is my pencil sketch, tinted a bit sepia with Photoshop:
I added little patterns in their chest feathers as a reference to things we each like. I put the triforce symbol from Legend of Zelda on the female because my wife loves those games and I added the Star Trek: The Next Generation symbol to the male because I love that show. They still exist in the original painting, but I digitally edited them out for this portfolio example. I inked the image in brown ink because I thought it would look good with the colors I would use. I painted the male brown because I have brown hair, and the female yellow because my wife is blond. I think it turned out well and my wife really loved it.