A painting or drawing technique where brushstrokes or pencil marks are applied with light, quick, overlapping strokes that gradually fade out, resembling the texture of feathers.
From the resemblance of the stroke pattern to feathers. The technique name developed in the 18th century as artists sought to describe this particular method of creating soft, graduated effects.
Feathering was essential to the 'invisible brushwork' prized by academic painters—the goal was to make paintings look so smooth and perfect that no individual brushstrokes could be detected! Ingres was famous for his feathering technique, spending days on tiny sections to achieve that porcelain-like skin quality in his portraits.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.