Duck Stamp

This assignment's goal was to create an anatomically and visually appealing design of a type of waterfowl. The final product will be submitted to the U.S Fish and Wildlife service in a national competition. The projects are turned into stamps and the profits go towards conservation. The class was given a list of waterfowl, and we then had to learn about their habitat, food, and migratory patterns. I chose the Steller's Eider, which is a duck that lives on tundra ponds of Alaska and Siberia. My project is done in pen and ink, and features both a male and female Steller's Eider.

In many of my 2D design projects, I haven't paid much attention to reproducing realism in color, and have been more focused on creating visually interesting color schemes. I used sharp lines that i would repeat more heavily in some areas to create value. Since the female has more color and value than the male duck I used a wider pen tip, and mixed the yellow and brown to create a lighter warmer feather color. I made the ducks be more central to the composition by giving them more value than the water they are in.

This project was mostly successful. I'm very proud of how detailed the ducks are, and I did a good job replicating the color and textures of the male duck. Unfortunately, I felt very rushed on the last work day we were given, and made an impulsive decision to do an ink wash for the water, which ended up looking very unpolished. I asked my teacher what I should do, and she suggested that I add more of the gestural lines that I used for the ducks. Overall, I made good use of color, value, and materials, which all end up making a very appealing composition. However, I wish we had just one more class period to work on this project.