Building a Parrot, One Feather at a Time

I’ve been spending a lot of time with this parrot in my studio, slowly building the color and feather detail in pastel pencil.

Bright color can look immediate, but creating it is anything but quick. Each area needs layers—shifting the values, adjusting the temperature, softening one edge while sharpening another. The feathers cannot simply be drawn as individual lines. They have to overlap, change direction, and still feel like they belong to the bird as a whole.

That balance is what keeps pulling me back to wildlife art. I want the detail, but I also want the bird to feel alive. The eye, the shape of the beak, and the posture all matter just as much as the feathers.

Pastel pencils bring their own challenges. They create beautiful softness and rich color, but they can be completely maddening to sharpen. The cores are fragile, and ordinary pencil sharpeners often break them. I’ve started using a blade and sandpaper when I need a controlled point for the smallest details. It takes longer, but it gives me far more control.

This piece is still in progress. There are areas I want to strengthen, edges I need to soften, and plenty of feather work ahead. But I love this stage—the moment when the drawing stops feeling flat and the bird begins to look back at me. That slow transformation is one of my favorite parts of creating art.

If you have a favorite bird, flower, or meaningful place you would love to see interpreted in my work, you can learn more about custom originals on my Commissions page.