Duck Stamp

Hooded Merganser

For this project I was working with the duck stamp guide lines, we had to create a 9x12 drawing/painting of a duck that used observation skills to notice detail of the bird and its environment. I chose to use acrylic paint to create a Hooded Merganser, which is a special of small duck. I wanted to do a male duck because they had to cool head feathers and I chose to put the duck in cat tails which is a possible habitat for this kind of bird.

I began this project with a 9x12 piece of canvas, I painted an orange pink color first. I did this because I wanted to be able to let some of the original back color come through and help get a richer color on the background and I didn't want it to be just white. Once the background color dried I began to add the water, I worked in lots of layers and started with a darkish blue and added lighter colors on over the top to help show highlights. Then I moved onto the reeds. I wanted to have the whole background down before I started on the duck because last year for this project I did the duck first and ended up messing up the duck when I had to add the background. I began the reeds by just added marks and then went back in and made a few of them darker and more defined. Once the background was down I started on the duck, I started by just getting a white outline and then started on the head and worked my way down. I found that by adding colors that I thought would go such as purples and blues in the brown it helped to make the ducks feathers more realistic. Once the duck was done I began to add the reflection in the water.

I really enjoyed this project and I feel that it really helped me slow down and only do one. This project I used all the class time and outside of class to make on drawing and I think it came out really well. If I were to edit or do this project again I think that I would add another duck, maybe a female or a baby duck. Something else to add a better balance to the image.