I learnt many things from my recent exhibition and one of them was that people like ducks!

So with that in mind, I have started a series based around Australian Ducks. Starting with a few smaller paintings on MDF board , which you usually can find off-cuts at a hardware store.

Once cut to size with my trusty stanley knife, I undercoat the board 6-8 times, with a light sanding every 2-3 times - this gets rid of small imperfections.

To start, I cover the entire board using raw umber acrylic paint in a cross hatch pattern. This serves two purposes, firstly it covers all that horrible white of the primed board and secondly it gives the surface 'bite' to make it easier to paint the next layers upon.

Using 4-5 assorted browns, I blend them together for the background.

The background then becomes secondry to the image of the duck, having little to no effect upon the colours. But, watch this space, as there are plans for other paintings which will take the environment into account.