Hey guys, after getting inspired and motivated by some of the community comments on my previous unfinished and unpolished drawing of a bird I titled Weathered, here it is now. I tried to consider some of the suggestions and I hope that I was able to meet your expectations.
Let us start with the bonnet suggested by @cabalen here I added a simple pointy bonnet. At first I thought a nice top tall hat would be nice but this knitted brown bonnet looks warm and fit for the bird and the weather. Looking at the previous one it is rather looking bald or bare I thinks it could use some embellishments. After I added the bonnet made sure I made some feathers stick out of the forehead to give it that natural look and it worked.
Then on snaps someone mentioned about the boots. At first I was thinking only about creating knitted socks but the golden buckles are my jump off point and so these are definitely going to be leather chocolate brown boots. I added a little light colored fur trim to them to add some softness and contrast to the otherwise all brown aesthetic. The weathered blue scarf stayed the same I just added some depth to it. now for the most challenging part, the body and the wings. If you notice the first draft the bird had this grey thing in front not sure then if it is a part of its feathers or maybe a cloth see below
The purpose of the grey thing above is to break the all burnt orange color of the bird I thought it was kind of overwhelming so I decided to keep it and did some adjustments to it but it is not working so I scrapped that idea. What was left is the body of the bird looking all burnt orange. So still afraid to proceed I made the wings visible went all in for that shade of brown. I became even more overwhelmed and thought of bringing back that gray thing but I tried adding some feathers nothing too detailed just a hint. I thought the trick worked and went full blast with the details. In the end it all worked out, that fear was handled with those soft feathers giving that large brown part of the bird some definition. The last touch would be the winter background. Gave a quick and rough squiggles to create grass or trees or what not then added some shadows to the bird and some snow. The look is now complete became more cohesive ready to tell a story.
Hope you like the iterations I made