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windfalcon — Up In the Treetops
Published: 2007-11-29 16:27:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 3544; Favourites: 116; Downloads: 76
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Description
A painted feather commission for ~Kunochi - an elegant giraffe among the trees. One good thing about painting a giraffe on a feather is there's no composition problems when putting a long-necked giraffe on a long feather! This one was quite fun to do. I've never really painted a giraffe before, so now I know how fun their markings are.Acrylic on turkey feather
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Comments: 30
how do paint on feathers..isn't hard?? Wouldn't the feather not be able to stay solid, no holes while you painting. How did you prevent this?
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I spray the feather with workable fixative first, which puts a gentle coating on the feather and makes it more difficult for the veins of the feather to pull apart. You still need to be gentle with the feather until you get the first layer of acrylic on, but it gives you a little more support. You can find fixative in any art store. It's generally used to keep charcoal or pastel drawings from smudging.
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I don't have a constant source - the feathers I have now I received from a classmate who hunts turkeys. Now I'm in a different area of the country and am going to have to find feathers of my own. However, from what I've heard from other feather artists, you can get feathers from poultry farms.
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Ah, I see. I've been getting mine from the yard, and our barn. Our neighbors have a bazillion farm birds (a flock of chickens, a flock of guinea fowl, a couple domesticated turkeys, and some geese). I was just curious if I was going about things the hard way. Thanks for the response. ^^
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That's probably the best way to get the feathers. I'd love to be able to get my feathers from birds that naturally molted them off. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who owns turkeys or geese, so I have to search extra hard. And since they're domestic birds, you don't have to worry about the laws that prohibit you from possessing certain feathers, since domestic bird feathers aren't banned by that law.
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>_> See, it isn't so wonderful. We don't get along with our neighbors, so I have to go rooting around in our pine trees and such looking for feathers big and smooth enough to paint on. So I'm basically going to have to wait until next August, and nick them from the county fair again. XD And yeah, the whole illegal feather thing never crossed my mind, because it isn't like I'm hunting the birds I get my feathers from, I just find them in the yard or in my barn or whatever.
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Very realistic-looking and it turned out beautifully. Keep it up, medear. 
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dude that is fricken creative and amazing!!! good job
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This is really interesting! I never thought that you could paint on a feather. 
Lovely job overall with this! :3
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Wow, that's amazing. I've seen many things done on feathers. I think it's amazing. How long does it take to do something like that?
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It depends on the complexity of the image. I can do certain feathers in a few hours, if they're simple. But others, like this one, took me a couple days, perhaps 10 hours total.
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Ahh, it shows. I love feather art
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I'd love to see a feather painting tutorial someday. Yours are some of the most stunning ones I've ever seen, and I've got SO many swan primary feathers (from my friends' swan - he was moulting XD) I'd love to have something to do with them.
I'm a sucker for feather collections
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Heh, well, there are other feather painters on DA who are much better than I. They would probably be the ones to do a tutorial, though if I find the time, I'll try to do one someday.
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That's insane how you've managed to paint on feathers. Great job on the giraffe.
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it looks awesome
and its done on a feather
but isnt the neck slightly curved too much
because a giraffe only has 7 neck vertebras and the so it cant make curves the way you did,
I hope you undestand what I mean, because my english ist not so good
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I'm not too familiar with the anatomy of giraffes, so I wasn't sure if the neck was too curvy or not. But, I feel the curve, even while not fully realistic, gives it the elegant appearance I was aiming for. 
Thanks for the comments!
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Man.. definitely elegant my dear!
I'm a sucker for giraffes.. they just seem like they should be so akward instead of as gorgeous as they are...
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WOW I love Giraffe's and this is sooooo awesome ,Great art
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Wow, that's absolutely beautiful! And on a feather, to boot!
So very cool. ^_^
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