Painting ducklings in watercolour.

Near my home in Sydney there is a park with a large water feature and I often go for a walk there to watch and photograph the birds. There are Geese, Corellas, Pigeons, Ibis and Wood Ducks. There is also a handsome Muscovy Drake who is quite friendly. He will waddle over to me sometimes to see if I have any treats. A few weeks ago I wandered over with my camera and I was surprised to see that my handsome mate had taken a wife and he had managed to produce ten little fluff bundles.

This is the handsome chap.

When I got over my 'excitedness' ( .....don't think that's a word......was going to write 'elation' but I thought that sounded too posh) I sat down to take a few photos.

Too cute for words.

Mum had her wings full with this lot. 

After I had my fill I went home hoping I had some decent photos that I could paint from. I uploaded them onto my computer and they weren't too bad but I decided I needed more so the next day I wandered over again with my camera. I found them and did a quick head count and realised she'd lost one over night. I repeated this a third day and again, she'd lost another one......sniff.  

Today I painted them in watercolour and I have to say that these little fluffy bundles of cuteness are not easy to paint. I have to stop myself from putting too much detail in. I used Daniel Smith's Yellow Light and Winsor and Newton's Transparent yellow and Gold Ochre. The beaks were Potter's Pink.

As I have a few hundred photos for reference- I will paint them again soon...........

.................while I wait for some grandchildren to arrive :-)