Falcon, revisited

The peregrine falcon was driving me crazy. I had grown to hate it. I thought about sanding it off, painting it over, cutting it off and re-stretching the canvas. Last night I had decided to paint another painting entirely and retire this to a closet. Thus I had nothing to lose. That is a dangerous and exhilerating place to be, artist-wise.
First, I had to give up on the source photo - it looked just like it, and it failed dismally. I started by deepening some of the shading around the wings and tail, then started trying to re-pattern the center of the breast. I made three or four attempts that didn't work. I decided to blank it out and try for another layer of pattern tomorrow. I ended up with a curve of light I may leave as it is, with a few changes at the edges to blend, a touch more shadow on the left side.



I am light years happier with it. Looking at the whole image, there's a blaze of light bounced off the top of the magazines, the crystal ball and the newspapers. I think the falcon is better integrated into the image with a blaze of light of her own. Or that's my theory.