Owls

 

Owls are one of the most interesting types of birds. I love them myself, they're classified as being morally analytical, and solitary. I recently created a new edition to the Art-Mania Villain crew. This is The Wise Ol' Owl, he believes in the willpower of wisdom, but he can be very deceitful, and tries treacherous methods to change people's minds from becoming completely normal to geniuses of his teachings.

This is what he looks like, notice that smug, yet wicked facial expression in the middle of the sketches. This is a true glance of his devious personality.

This idea started off as I was watching the extras selection of the 2005 Bambi DVD, it's becoming one of my all-time favorite movies, and Friend Owl in particular is a very expressive character, so it's a very useful example of studying specific owls.

They actually showed live-action owls, but these are images I searched on the internet, mostly for key reference. The narrow eyes show off suspicion.

This owl is flying mid-air, owls themselves don't usually walk on ground, so it's useful that they use their feathers.

Now Wise Ol' Owl may be a little more anthropomorphic, but he still decides to act traditionally anyway.

An owl is shocked, or maybe even surprised. Their eyes are more wide open, in a cautious sort of way.

Mr. Owl isn't particularly that shocked. The film theory is that the heroes are particularly more confident at handling challenging situations than villains often do. 

There's not a bunch of owls in animation. They're fun to draw, in fact my high school mascot is an owl. Last year, I designed and promoted virtue art until I graduated.