For this painting, I had always wanted to put a duck in the water and today I drew in a female Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos).
Next, I washed in a base colour of raw sienna and as it was drying I added a slightly darker colour mix of raw sienna and burnt sienna into some areas to give the body some shape.
While the duck was drying I put the reflections into the water with burnt sienna and a small amount of French ultramarine blue.
I added more blue to darken the reflection colour and painted in the eye, the nostril, the shadow between the upper and lower part of the bill, the top of the crown and the eye-stripe.
Next, I added more raw sienna to the colour and put in the mid tone markings and lastly, after adding more raw sienna I put in the lightest markings.
Using cadmium red and cadmium yellow, I painted in the bill and this was followed by adding the highlights with aureolin.
I used a tiny dot of cadmium yellow for the highlight in the eye.
At the shoreline, I indicated some reeds using various mixtures of Antwerp blue, French ultramarine blue and new gamboge. Using the lighter marking colour, I put some shadows into the water at the base of the reeds.
This was followed with a few closer more detailed reeds on the left side of the painting.
If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.
The ACEO shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.
