Maine Duck Stamp

Artist Statement

In this piece, I was influenced by the tundra swan. Tundra swan is a type of swan that has all white feather and a red-orange spot on it's bill. On the water, they often travel in groups; as you can see, this scene is inspired by the characteristic of the tundra swan.

For this artwork, I used a 9 inch by 12 inch watercolor paper. I used pencil to sketch out the outlines of the swans. Then used watercolor to highlight the background. Lastly, I used acrylic paint to paint the swans white.

First of all, I began my work by sketching out where I want the swans to be. One technique/reminder is that if you're putting water color over the sketch, it's good to darken the pencil marks when sketching. In this art, I made a mistake by sketching too light, therefore when I run the paper thought with watercolor; I lost my sketches. Next, I used acrylic paint to color the swan over the watercolor. I colored it all white, then added shades of grey on the layers. Knowing that the baby swans have a darker grey tone, I layer more grey on the baby than I did on the adult swan. Lastly, I finished the painting by adding some details like the dried grasses.