As Light as a Feather!

There's a new tutorial just arrived and in celebration of the summer break it's free to all members!

This delicate, soft Guinea Fowl feather can be painted as a stand-alone painting or you might like to add it to a study page to include the other feather tutorials which are also available.

In this one I'm going to encourage you to really look at your subject, thinking about the changes of colour and texture. If you are a 'collector' you might even have your own Guinea Fowl feather (or similar) to work from ~ if you do ~ this is such a great opportunity to develop your observation skills as you will be able to consider your subject more carefully. Remember ~ drawing from real life will help to improve your drawing skills as you will learn how to translate a three dimensional object onto a two dimenional surface.

After creating an initial drawing, we will use masking fluid to reserve the pale spots on the feather, and then we will add the detail using a range of different values ~ looking closely at the direction and pattern on the barbs.

To add the soft, downy texture at the base of the feather we will work into wet, then use a scalpel to create textured high lights.

To find out more about this tutorial, take a look at the short video below.

I hope you enjoy this Mini Tutorial ~ if you enjoy working from real life you could develop your study page to include other finds, such as shells, leaves, pebbles, flowers, seed heads etc.

During the summer break I will be working on a number of new tutorials ~ which will be released intermittentlyuntil September when the regular release schedule will resume ~ so keep an eye on your inbox to find out what's new at Tracey Bengeyfield Art!

Have a great summer and Happy Painting!