Duck Stamp

Artist's Statement:

The idea was to create a piece of art featuring a bird from the list of birds and waterfowl that the duck stamp features. This piece is intended to be entered into the Duck Stamp contest, so the idea was to make the Canada geese (which I chose as a subject) as detailed and accurate as possible. 

I used colored pencil on bristol paper to create a detailed image of 3 Canada geese (Branta Canadensis)in different flight positions. I included the classical V formation that a flock makes when flying in the background. 

At first I planned to do many more geese, and have them in a non-realistic position of a flurry of wings, but then I decided to make the preliminary sketch with many birds still, but with some in the foreground, some on the background, and the majority in the middle ground. This proved to be too much work, however, so I settled on the current 3 birds in the foreground (displaying the overwing, underwing, and various wing formations)and then a V formation in the background, silhouetted.