How to do a feather storyboard

[Randahl]

This is a storyboard for how to do a feather. I use this for classes, so I thought I would post it here.

This feather is designed after a Barn Owl feather. This is one of the primary flight feathers. The board is designed to be read from the left top to bottom. Finished on right.

Get your correct moisture content in the leather. Cool to the touch, but not wet looking on the surface.

1. Draw out feather, cut and deep bevel. The deep bevel makes it eaiser to undercut later without damaging the background.

2. Next use angled line beveler tool to start the lines in the feather. I used the Hidecrafter PB016. Tip it so it bevels

deep at the vein. Use a modeling tool to round over the vein of the feather.

3. Us the multi blade tool to take the lines to the edge of the feather.

4. Take a scalpel and undercut the feather. Just split the leather, don't cut through. This should be done while the leather is still

damp. Using the modeling tool, pull the edges of the feather from the background. At this point you can either cut the

feather free of the background, or leave it attached and make the background part of the picture. If you leave it attached,

use a background tool to texture. Go across the cut line and under the edge of the feather. This helps hide the cut mark.

5. Next add color. The panel on the right shows the finished owl feather. The paint is a thinned acrylic. The markings from

a picture I took of a Barn Owl feather.

I hope some of you decide to make feathers. I look forward to seeing them.

[ClayB]

Hi Randahl,

Thanks for sharing this with us. The pictures and the explanations should really help with all the people that are interested in trying to carve a feather like this. The thing I like is that it's not an eagle feather. I'm going to have to try one of these some day.

[leatherman1457]

nice feathers Randahl