Back to the barn owl

Funny how sharing my problems helps me tackle them...

Anyway, not only am I redesigning my sona once again (last time wasn't even that long ago),but I'm also going through a heavy artstyle change.

It's more detailed, more messy and through that kinda more painterly.
Especially the way I drew hair really bothered me, so I followed some tutorials until I felt like I had a better grasp on how to do it. And I looked at some references while drawing. Well... Lots of references, actually.

The hardest part about this is definitely allowing myself to be messy. It looks better and it's super fun, but somehow I always try to make it clean. Bad habit, I guess

I could talk about the colors as well, but this is already super long so:
Bummed the blue didn't work, but I do like the green.

Let me know what you think and have a great day