Greetings, readers and theoretical artists! K. J. kindly invited me to post on her blog after I threatened to feed her more of my cooking ( at least that is what I think she said through all of the tears, I'm not completely sure). Anyways, a brief bio, in college, I did not know what to major in and briefly considered English but I thought, " No way! I don't want to be poor or something!"  Thusly I am became a professional artist which means I am dirty and poor to the point of being dirt poor, as stipluated in all Art College degrees. All my artistic aptitude leans towards the three dimensional so if what ever I am crafting is not three dimensional, I smash it with a hammer until it is!

So in keeping with my desire to overcomplicate a simple idea and work with sharp objects this is the first half of my paper wing tutorial. A few notes before we begin:

1.) I have never done this particular method before, so it will be a magical journery of love and friendship and probably failure for all of us.

2.) The orignal piece I am basing my work off of was a painting briefly seen in the show 30 Rock (The Head and the Hair for those curious). I saw this lovely piece and thought to myself, "You know what I need to focus on in my life this very moment?? A job?? NO, a giant seated winged huminod painting that I can only sort of make out!"

3.) If you have comments, questions, suggestions, or hecklings while I post, please feel free to write them and I will reward you with some of my cooking.

4.) I swear I will get better photos of it as I work, my camera cost $4.19 when I bought it so it takes a lot of work to get any decent images.

Alright, enough stalling, please be gentle.

Materials: I used water color, black tea, and wall liner paper, a dip pen, and a sumi paint brush.

Step Number One:

On your paper, rough out the basic outline of the feathers you want. I looked up a number of photographs of  a swan's wing to get an idea of the shape and texture. Another good source for inspiration is Renaissance era studies of wings, the have a great deal of softness and fluidity when they rendered wings in that period. I on the other hand like sharp, poky feathers.

Once you have the shape you like for extra definition, draw over your outline in the darkest shade you plan to use for your wings. I used a dip pen (those old fashion kind that use nibs) loaded with a dark red brown water color. If you use water color as I did instead of ink, be sure to test it first to make sure the paint doesn't run if water is reapplied to it later.


Step Number Two:

BE SURE TO ERASE YOUR PENCIL MARKS BEFORE YOU APPLY YOUR PAINT!
I used a black tea for my feathers ( I like the smell and the organic color) but water color will work equally well but both fluids are transparent so any unfortunate pencil marks will be there to stay if you don't erase them first. My paper was stored in a roll and it maintained its arch even when unrolled but with the application of many heavy objects and the application of the tea this curve relaxed some. I actually prefer a small curve to the paper as it allows pools to form that add a variety to the strength and shades to the color.

So paint, allow to dry, paint, allow to dry, paint, through plastic wrap on it, stuff it with salt, allow your cats to lay all over it, etc. until you are finally satisfied with it. I personally tried to go with a little natural shading and suggestions of texture but it is your piece, cover it in frogs or something. Just don't put salt on the frogs, that's mean. And it will call the wrath of the Frog god, Ranna, upon you.

A Close-Up: 

Ooooo so exciting, it's so close! Here you can see how the lack of absorbency of the paper effects the painting. I decided to use this paper for its transparency and flexibility rather than the fluid absorbency found in  more traditional watercolor paper.

Step Three:


Cut out your feathers! Do you really need a photo of this? Just grab something sharp and have at it but don't stab yourself because blood doesn't look as cool on paintings as you would think. I tried to keep my feathers in large clusters when cutting and arranging them, I've found when I've sculpted with paper, fewer layers reduce clutter, unwanted shifting, and unwanted stiffness.


The Road so far:

This is what I have so far, just the tip of one wing, but I'm liking it so far.