HARLEQUIN DUCK

This is my duck stamp. Duck stamps are ways to participate in wildlife and habitat conservation. I made this for a competition for the National Duck Stamp. The requirements were to create an image, including specific kinds of birds, with an original composition. I started by researching some kinds of ducks, and ended up deciding on the harlequin duck. I researched their habitats and found some images of them. I used a photoshop app to put them into an original composition. I made the entire project out of water color, a fairly new material for me. I wanted to challenge myself and continue to work with this material which goes pretty quick and has such a unique result.

I started out by sketching my project, which too a while because I wanted to get the details and composition where I want them. The next thing I did was the water. I started with a tube of blue that was in a water color tube, but It was too bright so I chose one that would have less saturation. I also mixed it with a brown to get a base color down. The next thing I did, because of their habitat, was paint the rocky coast. I had some yellows, browns, and grays, that I mixed to get different colors for rocks. Then I did a coat on the sky. I made a light purple blue color and painted an opaque layer. I then went over each of these with another coat.

Next I painted my ducks. I started with the female, making a purple-brown color for the body. I made a green tinted color for some highlights and shadows, and I made a very light tan for the whiter spots on the bird. Next I painted the ducklings. I used the same brown from the female with more white. This was a good color. I used a dark blue for the beaks. Next I painted the male duck. I made a gray and mixed some blue with it. I put this down as the base and then mixed half to make it lighter and half to make it darker, using this as shadows and highlights. I also made a dark red for the stripes on the bird. I used the same very light tan for the whiter spots on the male duck.

After this I went in for more detail. I has liked where everything was and the activation of the sides of the pages, but It looked very flat, and blocky, much like pop art. Using a very thin paint brush, I went into the water, creating ripples; sky, creating clouds; plants in the water; and on the duck, adding feathers. This ended up pulling the whole piece together, giving it a more impressionistic look instead of the pop art look it had before. It is not photo-realistic, but it is still representational, and I am happy with the way it turned out.