Ugla

Here is a character design I made at the Conceptart forum for 'Boris the Lovable bodyguard'. I don't think he looks like a Boris, so I named him Ugla. I know, a strange name. It is from the origin of the word owl, which Ugla loves so much.

Taken from dictionary.com

before 900; Middle English oule, Old English ūle;  cognate with Low German ūle, Dutch uil;  akin to GermanEule, Old Norse ugla

I put a background in to show a quiet moment this hulking warrior with his private love, his pet owls.

I did the piece mostly in rough chalk brushes, I really liked the looseness.

The tattoos are always fun to do, the break in the tattoo where there are scars was tricky to get right.

Some close ups

Here is the process 

for Ugla

and the background 

For the wall and foliage I went to Matlock Bath and took some photos for reference. They are in my flickr album full resolution for you to use as you see fit.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/steventopley/sets/72157645506430875/