Wood Duck painting & photos: FFA & LAPC

Today, I’m sharing a Wood Duck painting I created. I used acrylic paints on mixed media paper that is slightly grained.

Wood Ducks, Aix sponsa, are one of the most beautiful ducks in the world. They are colorful and have unique markings.

Wood Ducks look like someone couldn’t decide what they should include when they created them. They threw in multiple colors, dots, stripes, iridescence, and striking bill patterns. They’re like something out of fantasy novel.

Creating my Wood Duck painting, mistakes and all

When I created my Wood Duck painting, I used A LOT of colors. Here’s a picture of my palette and the paper l use to try out colors. I brushed iridescent gold over parts of the head, but it’s hard to see in a photograph.

For the duck, I used sharp lines of color with a little shading. For the water in the background, I took advantage of the paper’s watercolor characteristics. I did a wash of pale green and layered on darker green and patches of pale yellow. I hope it conveys the ever-changing appearance of water.

Before painting the background, I accidentally dropped my paintbrush loaded with black paint onto the unfinished painting. It left a black spot over the duck’s head. Oh no! 😮

I tried an ink eraser and an electric eraser. Nope, those didn’t work.

What did work was a small pumice file meant for fingernails. They work for several purposes, including cleaning stubborn stains in sinks and toilets. Fortunately, the file helped erase my paint mistake. 😁

If you use a pumice file on paintings, be extra careful. It will sand off part of the paper if you press down too hard.

Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.

First Friday Art (FFA)

All my posts this week are related to water. Two show things in the water, and two show things on the water. I included a link to this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge in the two posts showing things on the water.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Looking back to #155 – On the water (LAPC)

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