Watercolour Feather Tutorial - Part 1

Three ways to Paint your Own beautiful
Watercolour Feathers

I love feathers! I love finding them, collecting them and painting them. 

This is a super easy project and so much fun!

To get started you will need these basic materials 

• Watercolour Paper 200gsm (or heavier)
• Watercolour Paints - for this project cheap basic children's watercolour sets are fine
• Watercolour Brushes - round size #4 and #8 (I like Princeton or Das Brushes which are all available fro Warehouse Staionary in NZ)
• Black Nylon nib ink pens 0.3 size (Sharpie and Bic both have great affordable pens which are suitable)
• Scissors for trimming at the end of the project

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​All three methods have the same beginnings
The first step is to draw your feathers. 
I like to do this with a watercolour pencil in a pale colour (like Lemon Yellow) or very lightly with a regular graphite pencil
There are free templates which you can print here, although I would encourage you to just sketch up something freehand a bit like this...

Sort of "leaf" shaped.

Next, fill the shape you have drawn with water... really fill it! dont be afraid of adding too much, it needs to be shinny.
Watercolour paper is made to take water, where you have place the water, a "boundry is created and it will not run or leak outside of your brushed area.  

Now you are ready to add the colour. 

I would suggest starting with just two colours which occur next to each other on the colour wheel (or the rainbow) if you are new to watercolour. 
This way you will have a bright beautiful finished feather, avoiding you from creating "muddy" colours.
A colour wheel watercolour tutorial is coming soon!

1. Single Colour Overlay
I have chosen Blue and Green for this one. 

 Using your #8 round brush, drop the colour into the wet area on your paper within your feather outline sketch.
I recommend to Try avoid from "painting",  just let to colour mingle together by itself. 
This is one of the magical aspects of Watercolour!
Put this aside to dry completely.
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When it is dry, using your small round brush (#2), paint details over your background colour. 
I love to add lines describing the parts of the feather and dots. Dots ALWAYS work!
Here you really can do anything you like, love hearts, patterns and shapes. 
Have Fun!
The intensity of your pigment will depend on how much water you mix with the watercolour. for a stronger colour, use less water. I would suggest just using a wet brush, rather than wetting your whole watercolour pan. 

2. Watercolour, Salt and Black Pen
Salt creates a really interesting and exciting texture when applied to wet surfaces painted with watercolour.
I have chosen Orange and Yellow for this feather.
Begin the same way as the first one. 
Sketch the feather shape, fill it with water, then drop in the paint. 

When you have filled your feather shape with colour, wait a minuet till there are no more obvious puddles of watery areas, sprinkle some salt over the paint. 
Allow this to dry thoroughly. 
brush all the salt away to reveal the magic

​See all the wonderful texture it has created!
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To finish this design I used a fine black ink pen to draw in the vanes. 
So pretty!
Part 2 is to follow...
more to learn for you ... and it has one of my favourite watercolour techniques!

If you are in Taranaki and want to join in for some relaxed & fun watercolour classes please feel free to join us on Monday evenings at The Gables Studio.

​All Welcome. 

X

Joni​ 

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