Duck Stamp

This project was a piece for the Maine Junior Duck Stamp Competition. For this competition, I had to scientifically depict an American duck. I chose to do the Northern Pintail because I find it's tail and plumage to be absolutely gorgeous. This was a fun project because I really enjoy painting, it was nice to have the freedom to use whatever I wanted to make the duck. 

The materials I used to create this work were acrylic paint and canvas. I chose to use acrylic paint as I am pretty confident using it and I enjoy using it. I find that I am pretty good at color mixing and matching. Using acrylic was a good choice because I was able to cover more canvas much faster that colored pencil.  

To create the painting, I first drew out a 9'' by 12'' rectangle on the canvas paper. I did this so that I could have a larger piece of canvas to work on and cut it down to the regulation size. I started by doing a light blue background then slowly added layers of color on the duck. I started by doing patches of black and white on the duck where they went. I did this so that I could block in the color and then refine it later. When I had finished the duck, I made the background. I chose to make it more impressionistic so the attention goes to the duck. 

All this made for a piece of art that I am pretty proud of and I think might do pretty well in the competition.