Duck Stamp 

This project revolves around preserving the natural habitats of different aquatic american birds, mostly ducks bus also some geese and swans. The duck stamp competition had some fairly specific requirement for this piece so the main idea guiding this artwork was to figure out a piece that fit into the requirements but was also something I wanted to do. I choose to draw a goose, because like last year were I drew a swan, its not that I like them that much more then ducks, I just really dislike ducks (so probably best not to do one for a conservation project). I also choose to do a goose because I see them all the time on the fields headed towards Lewiston when I visit my grandparents. I like their fierce personalities. 

I made this piece using gouache paint, a medium I have admittedly not used since last year when I did the last duck stamp. Getting back into it I learned a few new techniques. For the water I watered down the paint quite a bit to blend the different blues and governed the surface, then I used fairly dry paint to also stutter over the surface with the brush to create the highlights. The grass had a lot of detail that I created by dotting a wet brush with different shades a green over the surface. The actual goose was painted on a seperate piece of paper then cut out, this was to keep the lines clean, something I remembered struggling with with the swan last year as I drew it fist then the background. 

To make this piece I looked up a bunch of different reference photos that I copied exactly as sketches to practice drawing geese. Then I did a sketch using different elements I liked from each one to create my own unique goose (a requirement for the competition if I did't take my own picture). The I sketched the goose on the paper I would ironically not draw it on as I was just trying to figure out its placement in regards to the background. After completing the background, which was also a mashup from my reference photos, I taped on the fishd goose.