Maine Duck Stamp

Sunrise Swans

9x12

Acrylic

This is my Maine Duck Stamp painting of two Trumpeter Swans in the water with a sunrise behind them and two bushes with flowers. For this whole piece, I used acrylic paint. I first drew a rough sketch of the painting using a pencil where I wanted everything to go and began painting the two swans. I gave both the birds a base color that was off white, then focused on the wings and creases with some darker shades, adding a little yellow here and there. I then started with the water, using a base color of blue and then going in with darker and lighter blues trying to replicate the ripples in actual water. I added the reflection of the birds in the water too and added a few water divots around the birds. My plan originally was to have a blue sky, but because the water was already blue, I decided I wanted something different. Last year for my duck stamp, I did a sunset, so I thought this year I'd do a sunrise because it would also add a pop of color. After, I decided to add some blushes and used different colors and shades of green for dimension, then added some pink flowers just to add a little touch. I wanted to have lilypads in the water too with little lotus flowers on them, but I then realized it probably wouldn't fit the habitat and might look a bit odd, plus I already finished the water and didn't feel like accidentally messing it up since I was already happy with how it looked without them. If I could change anything, I would probably try to make some of the shadows on the swans darker since the bird themselves are white so it may be hard to see them. In real life, you can see the shadows and highlights in the painting, but in the photo, those aspects a little washed out.