After living on a sailboat for seven months, I’ve developed a friendly relationship with a sweet pair of Mallard Ducks. They were wary at first, but after repeated feedings and sweet-talking, they are our little pets. I see them a few times a day, either paddling their feet in the water up to the back of the boat, or what has happened a lot more recently, they’re standing on the dock, waddling up to me and eating food straight from my hand. How cute is that? Because I obviously adore these animals, and have a million pictures of them on my phone already (lots of reference pictures,) I decided to make a drawing of the female duck.
![The low resolution original of a drawing taken from a reference photo. Doesn't she have a sweet face?](http://penneyknightly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screenshot_2015-12-12-15-07-07.png)
![I increased the resolution from my original line drawing, and reoriented her slightly.](http://penneyknightly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screenshot_2.png)
Using the drawing I have so far, I’m just playing with some colors. I want to get a feel for how the rest of this drawing is going to work. I am asking myself some stylistic questions.
- Or shall I take it to a realistic level?
- Do I want to keep it minimalist?
- Should I do a line art against a solid background?
- Will it be a line drawing?
I don’t know the answers to these questions yet, but I’m keeping them in my thoughts as I’m working.
Here are some simple color choices, for fun:
![Coy Duck - Blue 02](http://penneyknightly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screenshot_3.png)
![A yellow (ochre) duck.](http://penneyknightly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screenshot_5.png)
![A red (rust) colored duck.](http://penneyknightly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screenshot_6.png)
I have some decisions to make about what direction this is heading. I also need to spend time cleaning up the lines that represent her feathers. I am many processes away from being able to color her, so it’s nice to play with colors and be loosely brainstorming them before my line-clean up / decision-making process. The little glimmer of instant-color satisfaction is very heartening to me. More on Miss Duck to come! Quack, quack.