A peacock with an open train

Fine black and gray ink drawing of a peacock with a fanned train, curved rows of eye motifs, a slender neck and two legs on textured paper. Set the body and neck in front of the broad fan envelope.

A way into the drawing

1. Establish the construction

   Set the body and neck in front of the broad fan envelope.

2. Resolve the main structure

   Radiate the tail shafts from their shared base and overlap the feather layers.

3. Develop the detail

   Place eye motifs along curved rows and define the crest and feet.

4. Control the values

   Build the deepest overlaps with fine hatching and keep the feather eye motifs light enough to read across the fan.

A small thing to tryVary the motif size with the feather depth instead of using a flat repeated pattern.