This is the method I use on breast, flank, and belly feathers of birds such as raptors.
This is also the technique I use on the heads of my birds, with some modifications, namely scaling down.
This is a sketch for long soft feathers, perhaps belly or breast feathers on a raptor.
The green lines are the flow lines,the red lines are the feather bunches, and the blue lines are the individual feather within the bunches.
This pic shows the individual feathers sketched within the groups.
The very bottom shows the "S" strokes that the texturing and burning will follow.
Feather groups are laid out on the wood.
Start carving in the bunches....I use a flame shaped ruby carver, either coarse or medium grit.
It looks icky now, but it won't when it's blended and sanded.
Blended and sanded feather bunches with the flow lines drawin back in.
Notice that the grooves are almost sanded completely out.
All we're doing is creating some interest with lumps and bumps....."landscaping".
On this type of feathering, I'll let my grooves be a little bit deeper....
helps give the impression of soft feathers that go deep.
Don't do this to all the grooves, just some.
I think that loose feathers need a little more aggressive landscaping to add to the effect of their looseness.
Another reason for making my landscaping a little more aggressive:
it has to be to stand up to the fact that I burn everything, and burning tends to cause the
eye to "flatten" out the texture.
OK, now here's where we draw in the individual feathers within the bunches.
See how they vary in direction, yet still follow the overall flow pattern?
The individual feathers have been carved in, and I've begun to blend them.
Again, I make some deeper than others.
I'll knock off the edges of the grooves with a medium grit diamond carver.
Sand these grooves almost completely out, too.
Texturing......here I use "S" strokes and a few "C" strokes.......follow the "flame" shape of the feathers.
I use a blue or white ceramic texturing stone.
Last step....burning......burn right over the texture.
