The completed painting called, “Laurel Rest-Hooded Merganser.” (Minus the signature.)
Readers of my entries may remember I had suffered from some serious asthma issues this May into June. I didn’t get to hunt spring gobblers very much due to coughing and fatigue, however, when I received an entry form from the Pennsylvania Game Commision for their annual Pennsylvania Waterfowl Management Stamp Contest I found myself wondering if I should enter. Afterall I wasn’t doing much else.
I have not entered this contest very often over the years for various reasons. With time not hunting or fishing due to my illness I began to think of potential painting ideas. The event rules limited five species of waterfowl for this year’s art. (Selected art would be for the 2024 print and stamp) The Hooded Merganser was one option. Others were: Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Redhead and Canada Goose. (I would do a second painting of a Canada Goose. This story will be on a separate entry.)
I do not see the Hooded Merganser in my area as often as I would like for this waterfowl specie is a beautiful bird to behold. The Common Merganser is plentiful, but the Hooded Merganser is not so common locally. In fact, seeing one can be rare.
I began to sketch the bird with an idea I had incorporating the state flower of Pennsylvania, the Mountain Laurel. I liked the idea and worked up some preliminary drawings of the bird.
The initial rough idea of the Hooded Merganser with Mountain laurel on scrap paper.
Notice I was undecided on the bill placement on this sketch.
A further refined drawing.
The drawings were refined for placement and composition as the idea began to finalize in my thoughts.
Finally, I transferred the working sketch to the gessoed-prepared Masonite panel. The image to be viewed at the contest was to be ten inches by fourteen inches, but I planned on eleven, maybe twelve inches by fourteen, in case I wanted to frame it to that size later. A white mat, as per contest rules, would be placed over the finished painting to only show the ten by fourteen size.
Six, or so, hours into the acrylic painting. I was having issues with the background color blending to my liking.
Ten or twelve hours into the painting. At this stage I realized the bill of the merganser was too thick so I would need to paint this over and redo to size. The laurel is taking shape, too. The ripples in the water were made with chalk to get the feel as the direction I would take once I began painting them.
As the painting began to take form, I noticed something was not looking correct. I studied the art with actual merganser photos and decided the beak was much too thick for a merganser. This example shown above shows a beak more associated with a Mallard and others. I would need to mix paints and cover the bill over.
Once the bill size was changed, I could begin further detail work for it seemed correct. At least I hope I got it correct!
Many hours later, the painting, shown above, was completed.
Larry A. Smail's Blog 