• 60 ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Peacock Art Ideas

Press for a peacock art idea: a fanned train, one feather, a crest, a peahen or a paper design.

Peacock Art Ideas

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  1. A scaly bronze-green back feather, copper marksThe Indian peacock's back carries scale-like bronze-green feathers marked black and copper.

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The fanned train 12

  • A Congo peacock fanning his short true tail He has no long train. He displays his real tail feathers, much shorter and with fainter eyespots.
  • A displaying peacock turned at an angle to the sun He shows the train turned about 45 degrees from the sun, so the light picks out the color.
  • A green peafowl's train, green with bronze and gold The green peafowl of Southeast Asia: green and bronze or gold plumage, black wings with a blue sheen.
  • A peacock flying up to roost, train streaming Despite the length of the train he can still fly, and he goes up into tall trees to roost.
  • A peacock quivering his raised train The stiff feathers lift into a fan and are shaken. Double the outline of the outer feathers.
  • A peacock roosting in a tall tree, train hanging Peafowl feed and nest on the ground, roost in trees. Let the folded train hang below the branch.
  • A peacock with no train, after the yearly molt The train feathers are shed every year from about August and are full again by February or March.
  • A raised train filling the page behind a small body The train is not the tail: it is made of very long upper tail coverts. A half circle behind a small body.
  • A two-year-old peacock with a short new train The train starts to grow in the second year of life and is not full-grown before the bird is four.
  • An Indian peacock side on, up to 230 cm with his train He is 100 to 120 cm from bill to tail, and 200 to 230 cm to the end of a full train. Fold it flat.
  • Only the top arc of a raised train, far off The upper part of the train is the signal seen from a distance. The lower part is looked at close up.
  • Several peacocks displaying in one clearing Males gather to display in one place. The central spots are usually taken by older males.

Single feathers and eyespots 12

  • A chestnut wing feather beside a train feather The wing's primary feathers are chestnut colored, nothing like the bronze-green train.
  • A feather of the white-eye variety of peafowl In the white-eye variety the eyespots have white spots where the usual ones have black.
  • A molted train feather lying in the grass Train feathers are shed each year from about August. Lay the feather flat, the eye end nearest you.
  • A scaly bronze-green back feather, copper marks The Indian peacock's back carries scale-like bronze-green feathers marked black and copper.
  • A white peafowl's train feather in outline only A white peafowl can make pigment but cannot place it in its feathers, so the eyespot has no color.
  • An eyespot close up, nested ring inside ring An eyespot is also called an ocellus. Draw nested shapes and make the spot in the middle black.
  • An eyespot drawn beside a blueberry One idea is that peahens are drawn to eyespots because they look like blue berries. Draw both one size.
  • An Indian crest feather: bare shaft, tufted tip Each feather of the Indian peacock's crest is a bare black shaft tipped with bluish-green webbing.
  • The hundred eyes of Argus set into a train In the story Ovid tells, Hera kept the hundred eyes of her watchman Argus in the peacock's tail.
  • One feather drawn twice, tilted two ways The color comes from the fine structure of the feather, not from pigment, so it shifts with the angle.
  • One train feather, shaft and eyespot, full length The outermost, longest feathers of the train each end in an eyespot. One long shaft, one eye at the tip.
  • Three eyespot feathers standing in a jar Cross the three shafts once inside the jar. Each eye sits at a different height and faces its own way.

Head, crest and neck 12

  • A blue head and neck in front of a wall of eyespots Fill the page with the fanned train and place the head low in the middle, the plainest shape on it.
  • A Congo peacock's crown of white bristles His crown carries upright, white, hair-like feathers, above bare red skin on the neck.
  • A green peafowl's neck feathers, like dragon scales Its neck and breast feathers are highly iridescent green and lie like scales. Rows of overlapping U shapes.
  • A green peafowl's striped face, orange crescent The facial skin is double-striped whitish blue, with a yellow-orange crescent beside the ear.
  • A green peafowl's upright tufted crest The male's crest plumes are thin and tall. The female's are slightly wider.
  • A peacock calling, neck stretched, bill open Male peafowl are famous for a piercing call. Stretch the neck up and open the bill wide.
  • A peacock preening the feathers of one wing Bend the neck into a tight hook. The crest stays upright while the bill goes into the feathers.
  • A peahen's rufous-brown head and white face Her head is rufous brown with a white face, and the tips of her crest are chestnut edged with green.
  • An Indian peacock's blue head and fan crest A blue head with a fan-like crest. Draw the crest as short stalks, each ending in a small tuft.
  • An Indian peacock's long blue neck against bronze green A long blue neck, and scaly bronze-green feathers on the back behind it. Draw the neck as one S.
  • Three crests compared: fan, tuft and bristles Indian: a fan of tipped shafts. Green: an upright tuft. Congo: white hair-like feathers.
  • The white stripe and crescent by a peacock's eye Bare white skin makes a stripe over the eye and a crescent patch below it.

Peahens, chicks and white peafowl 12

  • A Congo peahen: chestnut brown with a green back Chestnut brown with a black belly, a metallic green back and a short chestnut crest.
  • A green peahen beside the male, nearly alike Unlike the Indian peahen she looks much like the male, with shorter tail coverts and a more coppery neck.
  • A leucistic bird's blue-gray eye beside an albino's A leucistic peafowl has blue-gray eyes. A true albino would have irises that look pink or red.
  • A leucistic peachick, yellow before it turns white White peafowl hatch yellow and turn fully white as they grow up.
  • A leucistic white peacock in full display Almost all white peafowl are leucistic, not albino: no color in the feathers, and blue-gray eyes.
  • A peachick crouched in camouflage colors Chicks of both sexes are colored to hide: yellow to tawny with patches of darker brown, tan and ivory.
  • A peacock of the black-shouldered variety, side view In this variety the black and brown stripes of the wing are one solid color, and the adult male has black wings.
  • A peahen leading three peachicks in a line Draw the peahen once, then three small copies with shorter necks and no crest fan yet.
  • A peahen sitting on her nest on the ground Peafowl nest on the ground. Tuck her low among the grass, with the crest as the tallest point.
  • A peahen spreading her plumage at another peahen The female displays too, to ward off other females or to signal danger to her young.
  • A pied peafowl, color broken by white patches Partial leucism leaves patches with no color at all among the usual plumage. The eyes are blue-gray.
  • An Indian peahen standing, green at the lower neck Mostly brown, with a white face and an iridescent green lower neck. She has no long train.

Pattern and collage designs 12

  • A block-print design: pale lines in a dark fan Draw it as a negative first. Every line you draw will print pale, and everything left prints dark.
  • A crayon-resist fan under a dark blue wash Draw the shafts and eyes in wax crayon, pressing hard. A thin dark wash then slides off the wax.
  • A peacock built only from traced circles Trace around a cup for the fan, a lid for the body and a coin for every eyespot. No other shapes.
  • A peacock glued in front of a halved paper plate Draw the arcs of eyespots on the half plate first, then cut a body with a crest to glue in front.
  • A stencil of one eyespot sponged in a rising arc Draw one eyespot on cardstock and cut it out. Sponge through the hole again and again along a drawn arc.
  • A symmetrical cut-paper peacock from a folded sheet Draw half the bird against the fold: half a body, half a fan. Cut, open, and the two halves match.
  • A torn-paper train in three greens, a blue eye each Draw the fan lightly, then tear strips to fit. Torn edges read as the loose barbs of the train.
  • An accordion-fold fan behind a cardstock peacock Draw an eyespot at the top of every fold before you pleat the paper. The body is one pear shape.
  • An eyespot border repeated edge to edge Draw one eyespot on tracing paper and repeat it along a ruled strip, turning every second one over.
  • Overlapping fans as a scale pattern across a page Rule a grid, draw one fan per square, and start each new row half a square along.
  • Pressed leaves glued as a train behind a blue body Draw the body and a half-circle guide line first. One leaf per feather, stems to the middle.
  • Thumbprint eyespots stamped along drawn shafts Draw the shafts as a half circle of lines first. One print at each tip, a darker dot in each print.

How it works

Peacock art ideas, 60 of them: the fanned train, single feathers and eyespots, the head, crest and neck, peahens, chicks and white peafowl, and designs to cut, print or collage. Many hints carry a checked fact.

Read the full guide

The train is not the tail

A peacock's fan is made of very long upper tail coverts, and the longest end in an eyespot. He raises them into a fan and quivers them. The Indian peacock's crest is a small fan of bare shafts with blue-green tips; the green peafowl's is an upright tuft.

Peacock art project ideas in paper and paint

Pattern and collage designs holds twelve to make by hand: a paper-plate fan, thumbprint eyespots, a torn-paper train. As peacock art and craft ideas they take paper, glue and paint, and each hint says what to draw first. Choose a group under the button. Level waits under More filters.

  • Space the eyespots in arcs, like seats in a theater, and the fan reads as round.

Questions and answers

What is a peacock's tail called?

A train. It is not the true tail: it is made of very long upper tail coverts that grow above it, and the longest end in an eyespot. On an Indian peacock a full train reaches 200 to 230 cm from the bill.

What colors do you need for a peacock?

For an Indian peacock: blue for the head and neck, bronze-green for the train, chestnut for the wing feathers and buff for the thighs. A green peafowl takes green with bronze or gold, and black wings with a blue sheen.

Are white peacocks albino?

Almost never. Nearly all white peafowl are leucistic: the bird can make pigment but cannot place it in its feathers, and its eyes are blue-gray. A true albino would have irises that look pink or red.

What is a female peacock called?

A peahen; peafowl is the name for both sexes. The Indian peahen is mostly brown with a white face and an iridescent green lower neck, and has no long train. Chicks are yellow to tawny with darker patches.

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