Playing with feathers

I have always loved feathers. As a child I would collect all the feathers I found and stick them in around my mirror in my bed room. I don't know what eventually happened to all of them. I'm sure my mother had a field day when I left for college throwing them all out. I still love feathers. Since loosing both my mother and my eldest son in recent years past, I feel a special connection to feathers that happen to be in my path, as I think it is their way of keeping in touch with me.

I had recently been inspired by the talented Linda Barrett of a feather she had photographed with water droplets on it. Linda not only is wonderful photographer but she also is a bookbinder and crafty in many ways. She knows of my attachment to feathers and is generous with her findings along her way.

Here is her picture:

I have drawn feathers in the past but it has been some time and I have never drawn one with a water droplet. So I have been practicing, practicing, practicing. 

Here are some of my attempts:

And then I think I got it:

Thank you Linda for the inspiration. I feel very relaxed when doing these drawings. It might be the beginning os a series!