Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Mandarin Duck




I wanted to try and paint one of these ducks.  I found the colors and the textures very interesting so I had a lot of fun painting it.  This painting is mostly transparent paint.  There is a lot of opaques on the beak, eye, as well as the feathers around the neck and breast area.  As far as color is concerned, I used a lot of muted colors.  There are some intense saturated oranges on the ducks neck feathers and some intense turquoise colors on his head and eye.

Overall I am satisfied with the painting.  The only mistake I feel I made was that I forgot to lighten the line art on the duck itself.  After scanning the finished painting, I had to get rid of the visible lines around his eye and near his beak using photoshop.

As many of you know - I am an after school art teacher.  I also teach full-time during the summer.  Teaching takes up most of my time but I do my best to work on my own artwork when I can.  Ideally I would like to create at least one new painting every month.  I might set up a patreon account as well (I will notify everyone if I do).  I am not satisfied with my production as an artist.  It is hard to find a balance between my job as a teacher and my desire to create.  As my career as a teacher progresses, I hope to learn to manage my time better so I may also create more paintings for everyone to enjoy.  I genuinely love teaching, it is very rewarding but I also want to make more time to paint.

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