Learn How To Draw A Feather To Improve Your Bird Sketches

If you want to draw a bird, you have to know how to draw feathers. Here you will find instructions on how to draw a feather that looks realistic. First, we’ll look at what materials you’ll need before we go through the step-by-step instructions.

Materials needed to draw a feather

• Drawing paper
• HB Pencil
• 2B Pencil
• 4B Pencil
• Cotton swab or blending stump
• Kneaded eraser
• Reference Image

How to draw a feather: The tutorial

Step 1: Sketch the outlines of the feather

Let’s start with a sketch of the feather. Start with the rachis or calamus of the feather before you draw the outlines of the outer and inner vane. Ornithologists us the term vanes to describe the two feathered areas.

In the first step you can roughly depict the two vanes with two semicircular surfaces or you can elaborate them a bit like we have done. At this point it is helpful if you can orientate yourself on a template to see how the outlines run.

Step 2

Learn to draw a pen: A step-by-step guide to realistic pen drawings. Now draw the rachis with a 2B pencil. Start shading one of the two vanes with the darkest areas of this area near the shaft.

Step 3

Darken the shading. Now take a 4B pencil and draw the individual hair into the sketch. Use a kneaded eraser to reproduce the curvature of the feather.

Step 4

Now repeat the step with the other vane.

Step 5 of how to draw a feather

If you want to draw a realistic feather, it’s important to add a few more details. Use the 2B or 4B pencil to draw in individual hairs and hatch the soft feathers at the bottom with a few strokes.