Wonderful Feathers: the Beauty and Simplicity

1. Intro: Hello everyone. I'm Natalie and in today's lesson, we will be drawing watercolor feathers. I have some photo references. I will attach them, but honestly, they are only needed for clarity and general understanding. You can imagine the colors and shape yourself. I will show you how you can beautifully modify them. After that, you can let your imagination run wild. Well, shall we begin? 3. Pencil drawing: Let's start by securing the sheets of paper at the edges. This will make it easier for us to draw. The paper won't curl up if needed. We can also use pin to step as a stand, but I don't need it for now. If you don't have tape, you can use clips. They also hold the sheet in, please preventing it from bending. Now I suggest placing the silhouettes of feathers on the paper so we can confidently walk with water colors. Here I want to place a curved feather. I'm just making light sketch now. There's no need to detail the drawing. The pencil sketch is just to understand where and what will be placed and what shape the feather will be. Over here, I want to place a feather with a slanted sharp edge. On top of the page, there will be a feather of this shape. I want to draw it with white spots. I've marked them schematically to avoid confusion here, I'll place feathers of a more standard and clear shape. If you really want, you can draw a tiny little feather over here. All right, the pencil sketch is ready. I like the composition, so I'm keeping it this way. In the next step, I'll move on to the watercolors. Note that the drawing turned out light and barely noticeable. It doesn't overpower the watercolor. Don't press too hard on the pencil to maintain the lightness. 4. Watercolor washing: Let's get started. I want to make this feather to toned. I want to take a bright green and feel it in, occasionally leaving small stripes on the feather. You can even flow the brush after removing the excess moisture from it. This way you can achieve very characteristic feather like strokes. And immediately we introduce blue into the drawing while the green filing has not yet dried, obtaining smooth transitions. If the paint has already managed to dry, you can help mix. In some places, you can add brighter spots. Again, I love the mimicking such feathers. You can also take a clean brush and add some water to get NE and characteristic watercolor transitions. There is a light area formed at the bottom and that's to our advantage. With a caligraphic brush, we make more present light crystals at the end. It is necessary to finish the dark brace of the feather. If you wish, you can add a few dark strokes for contrast. Don't overdo the details to retain the lightness of the water color. We move on to the next feather. I wanted to make it really dark so we take very saturated paint and color the feather almost up to the outline. Then I fluffed the brush and made several three hand strokes along the counter, making the feather more realistic. I blur the lower part of the feather and a few bristles and that sharp tip, if the feeling hasn't dried completely, it will be very easy to make dot by spraying water. My paint has already said saw a clean brush with water will help me. I will be wiping the spots first with the wet brush. I traces on the feather, then squeezing the brush, I remove the moisture along with the pigment. Such facts work very well on cellulose paper and it's a bit harder on cotton. I like this method, the spots look very natural. That's why in such situations you can do without white. In the same way, you can draw a line in the middle indicating the base of the feather. I add a bit of texture here to animate the feather. The next feather I want to make very bright. I suggest mixing yellow, orange, and red. First I take yellow, You can slightly the brush so that the counter is immediately interesting. After you paint the upper part with yellow, immediately proceed to orange so that the paint mix is better if you didn't make it in time. Then with the help of water help the colors create a smooth transition. You can also add a few splashes, leave the lower eight of the orange wet so that it mixes easier with red. If you wish. Ad dress splashes or just clean water. Immediately you get texture and light streaks for the next father, I want to add some small stripes. First, I'll mix a dense blue paint and apply it as a wash. I then immediately create stripes with a dark color. In my case, paints gray in some places. At this color along the edge, traditionally fill up the brush and make a few brush strokes. I want to add a little water for more smoothness and an you can let the pint flow down, blue, age, or remove excess pint to add an element of understatement later. You can easily add details with a liner in this spot. Now I take a fine brush, load it densely with pin so it doesn't spread out and detail the center. After fluffing the brush, I add the final details to the feather and move on to the next one. In this pot, I want to draw a pink purple feather. I'll make the tip of the feather bright, then mix in more water and add fluffiness and casualness to the bottom. I also want to go along the entire feather adding some detail. You can make several brush strokes, slightly changing the color. Take dancer paint and linger in some places detailing the father. But remember to stop in time. Well, there's only little left. Let's make the next feather blue, yellow first. With the blue color, I want to outline a feather. You can even brush in prints to create an unusual texture, leaving gaps add yellow to the center. Then again with blue mark the fluffed base of the feather. By the way, it's easiest to make such fluffy strokes with a calygraphic brush. I strongly recommend getting one if you don't have it in your arsenal yet. I really love this brush and use it often as you might have noticed. All right, there is space left here for a small feather. Let's fill it in. You can make a quick pencil sketch or immediately draw it with watercolor. I'll take a common color and lightly outline the top of the feather. Then I pick up lilac and smoothly blend the colors directly on paper. I add a few standard strokes, the feather is done. That's definitely it. I'll draw the sheet now and then add some liner details. 5. Details with liner: Let's start on the first father. I want to show the feature from the top where there is minimal detailing with water color. From there, I'm drawing a dashed line down the middle. There is no need to make uniform strokes everywhere. Choose a couple of places for this and diversify a sketch in this way. To indicate a smooth edge, it's best to make strokes from the edge towards the center here. I want to add a bit of chaos here. I've added a few lines along the strokes and distinctly mark the center. Done. Moving on to the next feather. I'm emphasizing the center. Then on light background, I led several parallel lines. Relax your hand and with such light movements display the character of the feather. There are beautiful smartest here. I won't touch or overlap this part, preserving the watercolor gradient on this side. I'll draw a couple of lines next, I'm adding a few dots in the center of spots to make them move vivid. A few lines along the father's counter that said I stop in time and move on to the next one on this feather, I'll add just a few details to emphasize its essence. I want to add anything where the beautiful gradients are, but in this area, I'll detail the feathers out line with these lines. I also draw a few casual lines at the bottom for more fluffiness on the left side. I'm leaving a bit, but I try not to overload the sketch done such a mysterious father turned out on the tiniest feeder, I suggest making several neat parallel lines, creating a pattern. Let this fizer stand out from the others. You can also add a few dots, making it expressive and unique. That's all the feather turned out very. I want to emphasize the smooth dark edge on this side. Next I continue the lines from the other side, mark the central axis and detail it. I will make the left side dancer leaving more lightness on the right. Let the feather be heterogeneous, making it more interesting to examine the patterns on the top. Little feather. Turned out very interesting. Let's highlight them. I'm adding a few lines from the bottom left, then detail their upper right part. I denote the center of the feather with two lines leaving the middle untouched, showcasing volume. I feel like adding a few ovals and dots to this, creating a pattern. And that's I move on to the last feather which I missed. I really like how the water color settled so there will be a minimum of pan details here. I'll just detail the center and add a few lines in the form of strokes showing the leaves structure done. That's how our set of feathers turned out. Which one do you like the most and can't we replicate? I'm attaching the references I relied on, but I strongly urge you not to copy that you see 100% Instead, add your own details and colors, parts of yourself into your sketches. I won't hold you up any longer. Get started. 6. Outro: This concludes the lesson. I hope you enjoyed the process. Such uncomplicated sketches allow you to immerse yourself in the creative process and practice from a state of ease, draw, and most importantly, do it with joy. I'm looking forward for your colorful feathers. Bye bye.