Step 5: Adding the details
With just four layers of burning my Red Hen has a strong feeling of shape, texture and dimension. Each of her feathers is clearly defined, the basket spokes have a definite wood grain feeling and the position of each element in the patterns is well established. It’s time to add the detailing.
If this were are realistic portrait of a chicken I would only use enough fine line detailing to add a few accents to the work. Since this is a fun, folk art styled design I can use lots of detailing to bring the feathers, wood grain and grass textures out. I used my standard writing tip at a high setting of 6.5 to create my detail lines. This includes lots of fine grain lines in the wood following the earlier tight short strokes worked in steps two and three. The larger feathers in the wind, tail and neck now have multiple fine lines work and the small body feathers have a tight comma shaped line along their outer edge.
To strengthen the apples I have outlined along their outer edge and veins have been added to the leaves. That same type of outlining has been worked to frame her head and comb as well as her neck feathers.
By working this Red Hen with several layers of burning, slowly turning up the temperature setting, I have created pale, mid-tone and dark values exactly where I wanted them.
The pattern for this tutorial is offered courtesy of Art Designs Studio and for personal use only.