Tips and Techniques for Drawing Vibrant Feathers on Drafting Film

Creating realistic and vibrant feathers on drafting film is a bit different from the usual fur in my tutorials which is why I’m sharing a few tips and techniques to help you draw realistic-looking birds.

I created this tutorial at the beginning of this year because I wanted to create a tutorial where we could use some vibrant colours and we could test out some of the softer pencils like Prismacolor and the Derwent Drawings. I ended up using quite a lot of the Luminance colours and quite a lot of the Polychromos as well, and really testing the surface of the drafting film, using hard pressure and different tools.

I used harder pressure with my Tombow as well as my Slice Tool to remove and soften colour in areas as well as the Derwent Drawing Chinese White to blend everything together. With drafting film, it's very difficult to get a smooth laydown of the pencils; you tend to get an awful lot of texture in there. So, using a very soft pencil to smudge everything together works quite well.

This drawing took me about 7-12 hours and it was nice to use brighter colours in a drawing rather than the usual muted tones. Particularly in the back feathers, which were all oranges and reds, they were really fun to do. I used some very vibrant reds, strong oranges, and in the darker areas I added Paynes grey, which gave a sort of bluey look.

The line art was complicated, and I ended up only using it for a little bit and then making a lot of it up. I use the line art for my tutorials since I've got different people learning at different stages. But for this one, I ended up just covering it all because it was too much. Blocking all of the colours in and taking note of the values and colours worked really well.

Using the Tombow and the Slice Tool, I created almost like a shine and texture. I just lost it with the line art and decided to whack my colour in, and it worked. In creativity, you can use whatever you like; there are no rules. It's really important to understand that you do you. 

I don't normally use Prisma because they're a little bit soft for me, but I used them for the top of his head and they worked really well. I also used, for the very first time, an electric eraser and I loved it. It worked brilliantly when I dabbed it to create the little light spots on the top of his head. I used the Derwent electric eraser, the ergonomic one with a button you press to turn it on and off. They have another one where you have to hold the button down, which didn't work for me. The ergonomic one was a really nice technique, and I enjoyed drawing with it. 

My Slice Tool brought in all those little details. You don't have to make it exactly like the photograph; just have fun. The rooster had a really sweet little face, and using the Slice Tool for extra texture was great.
In terms of colours for this piece, combining purple with golden yellows worked beautifully because of colour theory; yellow and purple are complementary colours. If you’d like a bit of guidance with colour theory, you can download my free Colour Theory Guide. Mars black from the Derwent Lightfast range, a very dark, reddy black, worked nicely. Using sanguine and black was an amazing combination of colours. Darkening everything up and using the slice tool to bring the little veins from the feathers in was really fun. It worked so nicely.

If you want to hear me talk more about this tutorial and get more of a visual of the techniques and colours I’m talking about, make sure to watch the video at the top of this page. If you’d like access to the full rooster tutorial, make sure to join my Ignite Membership waitlist here.