Plumage Painting: Artist uses feathers as her canvas

Krystle Missildine from Alabama, USA, has been an avid painter since she was 16-years-old, but became serious about it as a profession after the birth of her daughter in 2011.

In 2014, inspired and encouraged by feather artist Jamie Homeister to try a different medium, Krystle immediately fell in love with the craft and discovered it perfectly matched her style of painting.

She said: “I love the challenge and the fact that it is a relatively unique medium. I really enjoy building up layers of paint on the surface of the feathers."

Using acrylic paints, and an extremely small tipped paintbrush, not only does Krystle paint the birds from where her unique canvas originates, but she has also made tigers and red pandas come to life in her feather works.

The artist said: “They can take anywhere from three to ten hours, however with each new painting they seem to be taking longer to complete as I try to be more precise as well as add as much detail as possible.”

Painting on such a delicate medium doesn’t come without it’s difficulties, as Krystle is faced with many frustrating situations when creating.

She said: “Splits in the feather, which sometimes happen hours into a painting, can be very frustrating.

"It is also a bit tricky at the start of a painting when trying to get the proportion correct of the subject without being able to sketch it out first, as you cannot properly ‘sketch’ on a feather, and have to do them completely freehand."

Krystle’s finds the feathers for her artworks in numerous ways, and has even started taking on commissions.

She said: “Most of my feathers have been given to me by parrot owners from their birds’ naturally moulted wing and tail feathers. Turkey feathers can be found relatively easily. Some feathers I use from my own pet parrots when they shed very nice ones.

"I’ve recently started taking commissions for feathers as well, so the subject is requested by the client, such as their family pet."