Duck Stamp

9" by 12"

Oil Painting

Unedited Reference Photo:

Edited Reference: (Note the plants in the upper right corner and how the ground curves around slightly in the middle right)

The idea visually evident in this painting is that a family of ducks were sitting by the lake. This is the same lake my Donate Life drawing was at. I slowly approached the ducks. I took over 100 photos with my phone, and this one was my favorite and the best compositionaly. You can see how the mother duck is protecting the babies. You can't see this in the photo, but the beach is crowded with people and kids splashing around. Because of this, the mother tried to get the baby ducks to leave, but they wanted to keep napping. This reflects the problem of people's infringement on the environment. My project relates to my life because I love nature, and I feel a particular connection to this lake environment (moose lake) next to Shawnee peak.

I edited the photo with procreate on my tablet, and I used oil paint to make the painting.

In order to create this artwork, I captured the reference photo, edited it, and layed out the start of the painting. I used the texture of the ground to help guide the viewer's eyes back around to the ducks. I tried to mimic the texture of the ground without painting ever single grain of sand--which I originally tried to do. This project started as a sketch, then I started painting. I spent several hours working on the first few inches, but I ended up moving on before I felt content with them. I'm hoping that I will be able to finish the drawing, but looking at this, I might try to continue working on this first version.