12. Duck stamp

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The subject of this piece of artwork is of a swan in the water with its wings spread as if it's going to take off. What I used to make this piece are paper and pencil, and I used my fingers to blend the graphite out so it wasn't all lines. I chose to make this specific piece, as I really like wings and everything to do with them. I always enjoy doodling them, looking at their anatomy and drawing the feathers. I knew from the start I wanted to do something with wings, and I have always loved the gracefulness of swans, the way their bodies are smooth and the way their beaks look. It seemed like a very good choice and i really enjoyed the swooping lines of the swan's figure.

The composition techniques used in this piece are Informal balance and sharp focus. The balance can be seen in the wings, as they stretch across the page almost uniformly, but not quite. The sharp focus is seen in the lines between the feathers and the lines outlining the whole bird. Those lines make you focus on the bird more than the environment around it. In the beginning, I was always planning to draw this piece with the swan with its wings out, but the original picture I was looking at had half the forward wing hidden due to the perspective, so I decided to turn my swan a little, to see the whole wing.

There isn't much story to this piece and it doesn't really represent much to me, besides my like for wings. The only way this picture relates to my life is the wings, again, as I have loved wings and everything to do with them since I was very little. If I were to go back and redo this piece, I'd probably change the background above the water and maybe add some trees above the waterline.