(1.) Step one: get reference. I can pretty much guarantee you won't get bird wings right just by guessing what they look like! For this step, I went through some National Geographics among other magazines and found a front view and a back view of an owl and an hawk's wing. (You'll need both views so you can show both sides...and won't end up having to BS one. ;) ) Having found these images, I sketched them very basically, getting the overall shape of the wings, the shape that the rows of feathers made, and rough lines where the actual feathers were. I then applied the same wing shape, feather row shape, and feathers themselves to a simple representative sketch of the image I was creating (just so I could see how they would be applied, and to get a little practice at creating the wings before ever going to the computer).
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(2.) Now that you've got a decent sketch of how the wing will ultimately look, you can go to the computer. In this example I've already brought my image into Photoshop and applied a field of color to the area that would be the wing. It is in the shape that I want (according to my sketch and the reference photography) and contains the base color I want for the wings (that is, the overall color for them--neither the shadow nor the highlight color). Upon getting the wing to this point, create a new layer and name it "feather guide". Here's where you'll re-draw your sketch of the wing directly onto the image. Get your pencil tool with a small brush and a color different from your wing color and go ahead and draw in the feather row shapes. Try to avoid drawing the actual feathers; you'll do that in the next step.
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(3.)Now go back to the layer that contains the wing itself (the one with the flat field of color in it). Take your airbrush tool with a brush that is approximately the width of one side of a feather. (Working at 400dpi, I used my soft size 35 brush, and used larger or smaller ones depending on the feather size.) Select your highlight color (in this case it was an orange-red color) and set the Airbrush mode to Dodge at a pressure of about 20%. Next, lightly define the feathers based on the sketch of the feather rows you made in the last step. If you need to, refer back to the photographs of bird wings you found, and to your sketch. Don't make the highlights too bright--you're going to go over these again. This step simply defines the overall look of the feathers. Keep in mind that the highlights will be fewer and darker the further from the light source they are.
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(4.)Now you're going to go back in and add lines in to make your feathers more feather-like. Yeah, this step takes some time, but it sharpens your highlights and adds in detail that can really make your image. You're only going to add in the highlight lines in this step--the shadow lines come in the next step. Some things to keep in mind are the direction of the fuzzies on the feathers and how bright the highlights are becoming. Be sure to get a small brush for this--I found that a size 5 worked well--with the same color and pressure as before. I recommend starting each stroke with your airbrush at the stem of the feather and "pulling" out toward the edges of the feather, which with a tablet should make the end of each line smaller than the base. (If that makes sense.)
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Click here for a closer view
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(5.) Now you're going to add in the shadows. You can approach them like you did the highlights (ie. add in a fuzzy dark area and then add in sharper feather fuzzies) or you can do it like I did it here and just go straight to the small detail shadows. The only difference it will make will be how dark the other side of your feathers are. I didn't need them much darker than the base wing color, so the small detail shadows worked well here. Either way, you'll still be using the Airbrush tool set to the same color, pressure, and with the mode set to "Multiply". The color I used here was a deep blue-gray color (it was only slightly darker than the color of the wing's base color). Then, just like the highlights, I used a small brush to make little shadow detail lines on the sides of the feathers without the highlights. After I'd done those sides, I went in where the feathers first come out from under the ones above them (the base of each feather) and on the highlighted side, I added in a few more shadowed lines to give the feather rows a bit more of a layered feeling. (Be careful not to overdo this!) At this point I also went in and added in the large shadow that the wing casts on itself. I believe I used a size 65 or size 100 brush for this, and a 35 to get the shadows that were close to the overlapping part of the wing.
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Click here for a closer view
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(6.)At this point, your wing's pretty much done. This is definitely a time to zoom out and take a look at the wing as a whole. Ask yourself if there are any feathers that are too bright, and especially if they're too bright as compared to those around them. You might need to brighten some of them up even. If you decide you do, I don't recomend using a big brush to do so. The best way is to go in with a small brush and add in the small detail fuzzies just like you did before with your highlight color. You might also want to get a big brush (100-ish) and darken up the edges of your wing that are furthest from the light source. Most likely you won't need to do much at this point, so SAVE YOUR PICTURE!!! Nothing would be worse than losing it now! (Especially after all that little detail work!)
Congratulations! You're done! Now for the OTHER wing...!
o_O
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Click here to see the finished image!
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I hope that that proves helpful and that I didn't confuse you TOO much! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to post a message about it in my forum!
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