Making/painting technique questions

[motoxguy]

Hello again,
Just wanted to get some input. As part of my practice I attempted to play around with making an image on an old piece of metal. Regular Createx, but thats all I have at the moment. I'm just experimenting with layout/masking/painting techniques. yup paint pull and cut marks, Im still a newb.

How would you tackle the wings? Mask whole area, then cutout each feather and paint one at a time, use a stencil, or freehand it? I tried the one feather at a time approach. I screwed up some as my masking tape is low quality and my blades stink. Im asking because I keep getting stumped on which way would be the best way to do images like this with lots of different areas. Also would you go for a softer look with no black outlines as well, and if you were going to line it up would you freehand the outlines? Here is the image I got the idea from and also a pic of my sub standard rendition lol.

[Diaz Dezine]

I think what you have done here shows you are on the right track but just need a little more time in figuring out what comes first and being patient and going after one feather at a time.
Masking it out with masking tape, then drawing it on the tape and then cutting it out with a good xacto blade is what i would do to achieve the effect of the reference pic you put up here.
Make sure you have a new xacto blade when you cut this so you cut enough to cut the masking tape but not to score the surface your illustration is goin on. If the blade get dull quick and stops cutting then grab another right away. you'll understand the day you cut too deep and the potential damage it can do.
When you take your individually cut feathers off so you can do your ABing, place them somewhere you can keep them intact so when your paint is dry enough you can replace them so you can go on to your next feather.
This process will get quicker and easier and you will find more ways of being a bit more efficient the more you do it.
Hope this helps and i'm sure others will chime in with other ways of tackling this.
DIAZ