In this piece, I wanted to demonstrate my understanding of realistic drawings, specifically scientific drawings through ducks for the duck stamp competition. I feel as though I mostly accomplished this goal as I was very proud of my male duck but not as proud of my female duck due to struggling to make her realistic. Overall I'd say the background was the most realistic and my favorite part, but I'm proud of the whole thing overall.

To make this piece, I started out with my acrylic paper (paper used for acrylic paint) and began by sketching out my ducks and giving myself the outline I wanted before beginning my background. To make my background, I started with my black acrylic paint and built it up from there. Then I moved on to my ducks, and after everything was painted how I wanted everything to look, I finally went in with a thing point gel pen to add some minor final details and called it a finished piece.

when beginning this piece, I first had to learn about different types of ducks and birds that could be options for me to draw, and then I had to select the type of bird I wanted. This is when I chose to do the bufflehead male because I loved its color and the way it was proportioned and stood out to me. Then I needed to read about what they were like and what they did. After choosing the perfect reference photos and studying what the male looked like compared to the female, I decided to show the difference by putting both in my artwork. then I was able to use my references and begin my piece.