Little Sparrow Friend · Shingled Wing Feathers

SUBJECT
One original little sparrow character with a round body, a short beak, two small feet, and a folded wing visible on its image-right flank. Short upper wing feathers overlap the roots of longer lower feathers, which extend toward the tail.

COMPOSITION
Show the entire standing sparrow in a three-quarter side view, with its head toward image-left and its tail toward image-right. Keep the visible folded wing unobstructed and large enough to read its overlapping feather groups.

STYLE GUIDE
1. Shape & line
Build the body from a rounded pear shape and the folded wing from a tapered teardrop. Within the wing, draw two staggered rows of broad, rounded feather ends above several longer tapered feathers; interrupt each lower feather's root contour where an upper feather covers it.

2. Color & light
Use warm brown for the back and wing, pale cream for the belly, and a darker brown for the long lower feathers. Light from image-upper-left and place slim soft shadows immediately beneath the overlapping upper feather edges so the layers read as shallow relief.

3. Texture & material
Render the character in matte gouache with opaque fills and lightly broken brush edges. Keep each feather a broad painted mass, adding only a few short strokes toward its tip; preserve clear overlap boundaries instead of covering the wing with fine barbs.

4. Composition
Center the sparrow with generous empty space and keep both feet visible above a small ground shadow. Arrange the wing layers diagonally from image-upper-left toward image-lower-right, with the longest feather tips pointing toward the image-right tail and remaining inside the wing silhouette.

PRIORITY
Preserve the requested identity, count, action, composition and output settings. Apply the style rules within those constraints; a style reference must not replace the subject or layout. Within the style: Make the upper feathers visibly cover the roots of the lower feathers.

AVOID
Avoid a flat scallop pattern with continuous lines through every overlap.

OUTPUT
One square character illustration on a plain warm ivory background, with no text, lettering, logo, or watermark.

SELF-CHECK
Check that interrupted root contours and edge shadows make the feather stacking readable.