Merganser ~ complete

SOLD

I finished this up last night. Today it's gloomy so not the best photo. My Canon has a noise reduction feature that seems to have brought out the blue tones in the paint which aren't that noticeable IRL. Also my monitor shows all the greens as various shades of lime. Not sure how they appear to others. Maybe someone will stop by and let me know. Oh well. Here it is, warts and all.

Note: I've discovered I've been misspelling the name of the duck. It's 'merganser with an 'S', not a 'Z'. 

Merganser ~ WIP 2

I'm posting an update on my merganser. I will admit, I was dragging my feet on this. All those feathers! Somehow it's coming together even though I lost a lot of my drawing when I removed the masking and (as usual) I didn't take the time to redraw what was lost before beginning to paint. Patience was never one of my virtues and it's bit me in the rear end more than once. I'm calling this duck done. Now all that is left is the reflections in the water.

My palette is limited. I used W/N FUB and DS Quin. Sienna for my greys, browns and blacks. The water is W/N Sap green and D/R Indian yellow. I toned down the chroma of the Sap green with a little Quin Sienna in some areas.

Merganser ~ drawing

I may have been silent for awhile but I have been working on a few projects. One project is an experiment and is still in the works. I'll be posting about that in the near future. I did get this drawing of a merganzer duck completed and it's ready for transfer to working paper. I will probably be using watercolor to complete this one.

I'll never forget the moment I saw my first merganser. It was a very large female with her brood of 10-12 duckings. She was resting on a large flat boulder near the shoreline of Lake Michigan, her babies scurrying all around her. Mergansers have a impressive auburn 'DA' on their heads and I thought she was the most amazing duck I had ever seen. I can only hope to do this duck justice with paint.

Note: My reference photo is courtesy of Sandy Witvoet, an avid birdwatcher and fellow gardener. Sandy has a Michigan birding site, complete with interactive forum. If you are interested in joining or would just love to see all the incredible photos on the site, please check out Michigan Birding Network .