Like all of my paintings, this artwork gets to exist thanks to my supporters on Patreon! If you’ve been enjoying my work, please consider paying for it with a small monthly contribution that supports my living and lets me do new, exciting things with my artwork.

Another one of my longer in-progress paintings finally completed! The sketch idea goes all the way back to late 2018 on this one. You can see the original post for that here.

I always feel privileged to get to see animals engaging in curiosity and investigation, working to figure out the world around them. This painting is inspired by that inborn curiosity, but in this case, a wild hawk investigates a mystical object he has found in the sky— a brilliant red stone, which seems to be the source of the winds.

This painting held a lot of challenges, from improving the initial composition to make it more engaging and dynamic, to figuring out how to pull together a lot of disparate references of hawks in various poses-- taking hints for the back wing from one reference, the pose of the head from another, etc. And then beyond that, I had to apply my own lighting, while also folding the markings into those calculations. It wound up being a good test of my skills, and I hope you enjoy the result.

The original for this painting is still available! There are also luster prints available.