Capturing the Different Textures in Birds

One of the things I find most interesting about art is capturing different textures. Colours can be somewhat flexible – we don’t always need to have the exact colour match to paint an effective picture. But textures can be particularly important to the look of the subject and/or background.

Birds are a popular subject within art, and they are my favourite subject to draw. There are four main textures we can see in birds and depending on your personal style, you might like to portray these realistically or you might prefer to give them more of an artistic flair. This written guide will focus on achieving a realistic look, but you can always take this information and apply it within the context of your own creative style too.

So, what are the different types of textures that can be encountered on birds? We will be looking at stiff feathers, soft/flexible feathers, smooth surfaces, and scaly surfaces.