Blue heron

[Dune]

I needed to have a blue heron, sitting quietly like they do in trees or along ditches. So first some simple blocky work in Lightwave, then import in ZB to subdivide and sculpt, add some head, back and neckfeathers (fibermesh), then polypaint. Now all I need to do is make some different postures (head up, left, right, etc) out of it.

[luvsmuzik]

  Lovely

[mhaze]

Great stuff, the tree is superb - do herons nest like that?

[Dune]

Yes, they do. Actually, where I was born in Amsterdam, we lived opposite a colony/rookerie.

[sboerner]

Blue herons are native to our area, too. They are beautiful, very large birds. Prehistoric-looking in flight.

[j meyer]

  Nice herons and tree.

[mhaze]

Wow!!

[WAS]

They look fantastic, I watch them daily on the beach here. Only suggestion I have is a little grayer matt blue.

[Oshyan]

Yes, looks great, but agree with WAS, the blue needs to be lightened and desaturated a bit, I think.

- Oshyan

[WAS]

They love our wetlands around here for the abundance of snakes, fish, bugs and what not. Really cool birds. I remember as a kid I was startled by. I went down to the pond shores to try and catch bullfrogs and fish and one was behind some cat tails doing it's own fishing and it took off right by me, I could feel the force of it's wings.

[Jo Kariboo]

  In some photographs it is as dark blue as in the Dune picture!     

[WAS]

In some photographs it is as dark blue as in the Dune picture!   

That's a Tricoloured Heron [top one].  Bottom is the Great Blue Heron, there is also the solid Blue Heron, and Little Blue Heron

Here's a provided image of Little Blue Heron, which the blue Ulco captured matches almost perfectly. Could easily make a scaled variant.

[Dune]

I was thinking of desaturating as well, already did parts. I'll update with some closer shots....

[luvsmuzik]

They are called blue because they are....agree hue may vary, but in my area blue is very obvious.

[WAS]

Many types of Heron, but the iconic Great Blue Heron has a very dull blue, even in it's "Blue Form" variant, it's pretty grey. Didn't know about the white variant.

Check out this identification page: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/id