Duck Stamp Color Study

The subject of this piece is two Harlequin ducks. The setting is a river in Canada where Harlequin ducks might be in the spring. I started by setting up this piece on my computer. I arranged each of the ducks in the position I wanted them to be in and tested out several different backgrounds before deciding on this one. Then, I used the grid method to keep the proportions correct because I was worried about keeping the drawing accurate. While I was working on this piece, I used oil pastels, tortillons, and at the end, I used an exacto knife to add some texture and small details. I chose to use this particular species of duck for two reasons: it has bright vibrant colors that I thought could work out well with oil pastels, and I liked how the bright orange feathers stand out against the blue water. In this piece I used lines to show texture and shape, and in several areas, I used different colors to show value and form. For instance, I used purple in the water and green on some of the orange feathers. In the water I tried to emphasize movment, and I tried to use contrasting colors to highlight the two ducks.

In this piece I used informal balance. One thing I wasn't sure about in the set up was the number of ducks included. I know it is a good idea to use an odd number of subjects, but I decided to stick to two. This project evolved in several different ways. While I was working on the water portion, I was having a hard time following the colors and shapes in the reference photo, so I decided to come up with the second half of the water from my head. Because I did not do any planning for this, it changed a lot as I decided exactly how I wanted the water to look.

When I designed this I had no idea how much time I would spend on it. It was a huge challenge just to finish it and I was really happy that I did not give up on it or rush it when it was taking a long time. While I am very happy with how it came out (especially for my first oil pastel in four years) there are several things I wish I could go back and change.

• The highlights are dull because I couldn't decide how big/where I wanted them to be.
• Some of the colors are dull (it doesn't look like this way in the image above, but that is because I increased the saturation slightly).
• The water in the bottom left half is not as good and doesn't match up well with the first portion (which was surprising because I liked the section where I didn't use a reference better).
• The wave in the front looks blocky, and again, it doesn't match up well.
• The highlights on the female duck were poorly done.
• The feathers on the male duck (not the orange one) have almost no direction.
• The orange highlights were rushed.
• The lighting isn't super consistent.
• I used too much black for some of the shadows.
• The placement of the ducks is slightly off.

Overall, I liked how it turned out, but I wish it turned out better in some places considering the time I spent on it.