Duck Stamp

Artist Statement

“Splash landing!” was created for the Maine Duck Stamp Competition. In the piece, it shows a Trumpeter Swan landing in a body of open water. The message of the piece is about wildlife conservation. Personally however, I really wanted to work on my textual skills. It is challenging to accurately portray the movement of an animal on a 2-D surface. As I worked, I learned a lot about the different ways in which paints behave, and allow certain freedoms and blockages. To say something about conserving these animals is also important, even if it wasn’t necessarily the driving force behind my work. These animals are interconnected with us. They live, and by doing so take part in a food web that involves all of us. What they eat, and where they live may seem very arbitrary, but it leads back to the same important realization. We are a driving cause to destroying the homes and lives of these magnificent birds. If we let our actions continue, the consequences will be great. It will be on us to say that we helped destroy the environments that these birds need to survive. Hopefully, in “Splash Landing!” you are able to see the life that this bird can live, if only we change our mindset and actions.

When I began, I started using graphite pencil for my rough sketches, and then once I had a basic shape, I used Gouache to put a layer of white down. From here I used mostly acrylic paint and some colored pencil. I got more creative with materials as time went on, and I ended up using charcoal (both white and black), watercolor markers, and watercolor pencils. I used this wide range of materials to try and get the texture correct. Eventually, I used Gouache to cover almost all of it, except the eye and beak (made with charcoal (eye) and color pencil/charcoal combination). The paper that I used is 9” by 12” watercolor paper. I had originally intended to make it mostly watercolor, but that idea changed significantly as time progressed.

The process of creating this piece started with choosing which duck I wanted to do. Technically the Trumpeter Swan is not a duck, but being a type of waterfowl, it counted for the competition. I was drawn to the grace of the Trumpeter Swan, and also I was interested in the wings, specifically the tips of the wings. I did research about the basic information about the Trumpeter Swan. I learned about its habitat, diet, breeding habits/rituals, and where it migrates to and from. I also learned what it looks like, generally. I started out with many sketches of how I wanted it to be. Then I started painting. I went through quite a bit of paint, so the bird has many, many layers of materials on it. I was getting frustrated with it at one point, (as often can be the case with time-limited artwork) and I started to add materials that I thought would help but ended up not helping. These were the charcoal, and chalk pastels. The most fun part by far, was the splashing up of the water when they land. I used a brush that looks like a fan, to create both the texture and the movement I wanted the water to have. I also really enjoyed making the contrast between the navy blues of the water and the stark white of the Swan, so clear. Overall, there was a lot of time spent on this creation, and in the end, I am fairly pleased with the work, though if I were to revise/start over, I would want to spend more time on the feathers. I’ve got a better understanding of the process required for making a scientifically accurate drawing, and spending more time on the details of the texture on the wings/feathers would be helpful. Also adding more shadows for depth.