Sculpting feathers?
- Thread starter Tahn
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freakinacage
New member
i\'d say flatten out a blob of gs into a feather shape, wait about half an hour/an hour for it to start to cure and then use a sharp tool (an knife would do i reckon) cut either side of the quill (the bit in the middle anyway)and then do the texture on the bits on the sides. don\'t worry about too much detail, they look more realistic if they aren\'t too liney (if you know what i mean) if you ask me. hope this helps
I have a issues with how feathers are sculpted generally, because they\'re typically sculpted increadibly inacurately! Look at a real feather and you\'ll see at life size they are almost completely smooth except for the ridge down the middle. However, it seems EVERY sculpter has decided that when reducing them to a tiny fraction of the size, they would suddenly have dozens of ridges radiating out. Honestly I think it\'s rediculous and completly unrealistic and why so many people have such a hard time getting sculpted feathers to look right. And the ones that do manage to get them to look right, are typically those who ignore the ridges and just paint them like they should look despite the texture.
So I say sculpt the shape of the feather, include the ridge down the center, but beyond that, paint any texture you want onto them!
So I say sculpt the shape of the feather, include the ridge down the center, but beyond that, paint any texture you want onto them!
It depends on what type of feather you are talking about, but most decorative feathers are from the wings of large birds like hawks or eagles, and are smooth as EricJ pointed out. A Native American headdress would be a good example. These feathers actually are also usually asymmetric, almost bladelike in shape (think of a butter knife). On the other hand, fletching on arrows often does look coarse or ridged, and may not even be derived from feathers in some cases.
Good luck!
Good luck!
freakinacage
New member
not if you paint it like a feather!!!
Sonnyslayer
New member
This is how a feather looks like. i hope you know that.
Its hard the sculpt it like that.. so i would do like EricJ said and paint small lines to give it some texture
Its hard the sculpt it like that.. so i would do like EricJ said and paint small lines to give it some texture
Ran into a few interesting articles on feathers:
http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~emmanuel/courses/cs563/write_ups/bradg/feathers/featherpaper.htm#feather
http://207.62.207.35/vet01/vett53a/vett53Aphotos/lecture/module21/photo02.gif
http://www.earthlife.net/birds/feathers.html
That should give you some reference.
About making feathers, well, if if\'s not for production you can cut a bit of thin plastic or paper in the right shape and make the rachis (yup, just learned a new word ) with putty. if you want to do the whole in putty, take some plastic and lubricate it. Take some putty and press it flat. Cut out the feather shape, sculpt the rachis and any irregularities, bend it to shape and let cure. Then remove it from the plastic and make the rachis on the other side.
As to the unrealistic look, that\'s just like with chainmail and fur effect, it\'s exagerated for effect. Probably more important in the time that drybrush was in common use for painting. I think army painters will like it for that too.
Anyway, quick question: do you people prefer smooth feathers or with texture? In sculpts that is (and no, I\'m not going to redo my harpy. She stays textured. Angel may become smooth though. ).
http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~emmanuel/courses/cs563/write_ups/bradg/feathers/featherpaper.htm#feather
http://207.62.207.35/vet01/vett53a/vett53Aphotos/lecture/module21/photo02.gif
http://www.earthlife.net/birds/feathers.html
That should give you some reference.
About making feathers, well, if if\'s not for production you can cut a bit of thin plastic or paper in the right shape and make the rachis (yup, just learned a new word
) with putty. if you want to do the whole in putty, take some plastic and lubricate it. Take some putty and press it flat. Cut out the feather shape, sculpt the rachis and any irregularities, bend it to shape and let cure. Then remove it from the plastic and make the rachis on the other side.As to the unrealistic look, that\'s just like with chainmail and fur effect, it\'s exagerated for effect. Probably more important in the time that drybrush was in common use for painting. I think army painters will like it for that too.
Anyway, quick question: do you people prefer smooth feathers or with texture? In sculpts that is (and no, I\'m not going to redo my harpy. She stays textured.
Angel may become smooth though. ).demonherald
New member
I\'ve seen quite a few people use real feathers to great effect..
You need either wing feathers or beast feathers depending on the finished effect you want.
You can trim them to the shape you want and you can paint themif needed also lightly spraying with varnish can give them a little more stiffness.
If you pop along to a local pet shop that sells Budgies there are always plenty of feathers kicking round in the bottom of the cages.and the staff will generally grab you a few. Failing that fishing tackle shops that sell fly fishing ear have them
You need either wing feathers or beast feathers depending on the finished effect you want.
You can trim them to the shape you want and you can paint themif needed also lightly spraying with varnish can give them a little more stiffness.
If you pop along to a local pet shop that sells Budgies there are always plenty of feathers kicking round in the bottom of the cages.and the staff will generally grab you a few. Failing that fishing tackle shops that sell fly fishing ear have them
