Help required with feathers

I have a Beastmen warband that has two eagle-headed beastmen for heroes. Now, painting the eagle-heads will be easy - I can paint feathers when they are sculpted on. The thing is though, the skin is smooth. What is the best/easiest way to paint something that will give the impression of feathered arms and torso?

How about gently drybrushing a slightly darker/lighter shade over it in streaks to give an impression of feather edges all pointing in one direction?

Not quite sure what you mean. Do you have an example? Which way should the lines be going? Horizontally? Vertically?

For reference, I am a *very* amature painter. I know what drybrushing is, and I know what washing is, but beyond that I have very little skill or knowledge. I have heard *of* things like non-metallic metallic and that light-source thingy painting, but I wouldn't have a clue how to do it.

You could try stippling it with a lighter colour to make it look more like down feathers. Just take an old brush, put a little paint on it (so that there's a bit more than you'd have when drybrushing) and "stab" at the model as if the bristles of the brush were a... stabby thing. This is a fairly easy technique that might get you the results you're after.

I think you should have a go at sculpting some feathers yourself, but that's mostly because I have a similar project that I'm putting off because I don't think I could sculpt a convincing feather to save my life!