How can you be an artist who creates birds without including a Peacock?

They are so regal, colourful and arrogant, you just can’t over look them. That said, the sad and soggy photographs I took of my subject whilst on holiday in Cornwall were not my finest!  A great deal of artistic licence was going to be called for to regain his finery.

Even on such a wet day, the fabulous colours in his plumage are visible, it was a starting point if nothing else.

I decided to focus on a ‘head shot’, concentrating on the feathers, colours and textures around his face and crest.  I had very few suitable blues in my stash so had to go shopping for just the right pieces (hooray!).  I worked out from my outline sketch how many colours ! would need to create the different textures and light and shade.

Once again the Oliver Twist threads were ideal, their gradual colour changes were perfect and the two packs covered most of the colours I needed.

Below shows the Peacock pieced ready for stitching.

Before starting stitching I add details to follow with a heat removable pen.

The Peacocks head has an unusual texture which called for quite a different stitch pattern.  Areas around the eye have an almost turkey like appearance.

The stitch pattern used can be seen more clearly from the back.

The feather shafts of the crest were created using a King Tut thread which had a colour change from grey to pale brown.

The picture below shows the background fabric being quilted with similar thread colour, following the pattern of the fabric to avoid it becoming too dominant.

The finished piece, I feel he has regained some of his royal presence and arrogance!

A limited edition Giclee print of ‘Fanfare of Feathers’ is available on my website shop click here  to view.