Duck Stamp

Colored pencil, watercolor,marker

9"x12"

Artist statement:

The duck stamp project is for the main purpose of conservation of wetland habitat. Drawing these ducks and entering them into the duck stamp competition generates money that is then put towards wetland conservation (The main duck habitat). The duck drawings are entered into a competition in which they can be featured on hunting license stamps. Mainly in this work I was trying to get an accurate representation of what a canada goose looks like. This is called scientific illustration, it requires the artist to look at many different references to try to create a real looking image. Although the drawing is meant to be scientific there is also a little leeway for the artist to add personality to the duck. This is what I was trying to o with the little ruffle of the feathers on the water. To make this work I used watercolor for the background (Sky and reeds), colored pencil for almost everything, and marker for the added effect of the water rippling. I tried my best to varnish and make it look realistic but it is quite hard on watercolor paper. Colored pencil was what I gravitated towards in this project because it allows me to add the most detail than any other material and this being a scientific drawing was a project that called for a lot of colored pencil. Obviously in a scientific illustration project there is going to be a lot of referencing and looking back and forth, so of course one of the things that helped me was looking at a photo of a canada goose to be able to accurately depict it in the drawing, I did also have to mix and match different photos together to get the certain pose I was looking for. For instance, I would look at the goose gliding on water and take reference from that while also getting the wings from a picture of the goose flying. Overall, this was not my favorite project because it didn't allow for a lot of creativity but I would say I am pretty happy with my final piece.