Duck Stamp

Artist Statement

For this project, we had to create an image of a duck that will be entered into the Junior Duck Stamp Competition. I chose to draw a Mallard Duck because I love the richness of color in their green heads and their blue feathers. What I thought was challenging while creating this piece was trying to match all the texture in the feathers working within a small space. One thing that I wish I could fix is that you can still see the gridlines even under the colored pencil and there isn't much I can do to get rid of them. But, overall I am pretty happy with how my piece turned out, but I still need to work on the background and build up the colors.

The materials I used for their piece were colored pencils and watercolors on watercolor paper. I chose to work with colored pencils to draw the duck because they are something that I feel I have the most control with. This was the first time I used Prismacolor colored pencils and all I have to say is WOW! The glid on the paper and are just full of pigment. I also really like how they are a little more oily, allowing you to layer and blend colors. I chose watercolor paint to paint my background because I wanted the background to be a bit of a blur as to not take away from the focus of the duck.

The process of creating this piece was quite long, well longer than I think it should have been. We were given a list of native North American ducks and swan species. I chose the Mallard Duck because I think that they are by far the cutest species of duck. Next, we had to find some photo references. For me, this was probably the hardest step because I found so many great pictures and had a hard time narrowing it down to just a few. I eventually ended up choosing a photo from the National Audubon Society, then printed the photo and grided both the photo and my paper to make sure my proportions were accurate. After I finished drawing the duck I started the background. I knew that I wanted to put a little more of my own elements into the piece but I still had to stay true to the research we did before we started the project. Knowing that Mallard ducks live in wetlands helped me visualize what type of habitat and environment I should put my duck in. Although I still need to finish the background I am happy with how my piece turned out so far.