Duck Stamp

The inspiration for this Duck Stamp came from the competition of having to draw a realistic representation of a duck with its specific habitats. Through the process of creating this duck, I began to learn how to paint/draw reflections. As well as adding texture and shading a variety of gouache colors. Another thing I learned from this project was that Hooded Mergansers, the duck I chose, lives in a multitude of habitats, which include: marshes, rivers, streams, and ponds.

The materials I used for the Duck Stamp included colored pencils, gouache, and watercolor paper. When drawing the "hood" of the Hooded Merganser as well as parts of the body of the duck, I primarily used colored pencils. For the background and reed, I used gouache.

My process of creating my Duck Stamp this year took several weeks. My first step was choosing what duck to create realistically. I chose the Hooded Merganser because I thought it would be a really fun duck to draw, especially with the head. As I began this process of drawing/painting, I chose to paint the background, the sky and water, with gouache. Once I did this, I started on the foreground and got the basic shape of the duck. From there, I added colored pencils over the gouache to add detail and make it realistic as possible.