Feathers are delicate and highly intricate up close…
… but in drawing pictures of birds you can rarely see more than a block of smooth pattern with perhaps a feather or two visible in the wings and tail.
The difficulty, then, is learning how to depict realistic feathers with the right amount of detail.
Begin with a sketch of the bird that shows the outer shape of the feathers.
When the exterior lines are correct, sketch in the shape of the wings and tail feathers, patterns on the head, and so on.
If there are any small flyaway feathers visible, preserve them by indenting the paper with a blunt stylus.
Add tone in the direction of the feathers and blend smooth, then begin accenting the general pattern of the feathers laying against the body.
These feathers are only visible because of a dark line or two that separates them from the rest of the body, so keep your lines subtle.
Go back in and accent a few lines by pulling out highlights on one side of a feather’s edge and darkening the other. A few areas of sharp contrast will heighten the realism of the drawing overall.
Darken features like the eye, beak, and legs to make them stand out sharply. If there is dark pattern visible on any of the feathers, make it as black as you can by laying it in with a soft pencil (5B or so), blending with a small tortillon, and darkening the tone a second time.
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