Welsh Harlequin Duck with Easter Eggs

 

March gave us a bonus week just before Easter and April Fools Day, all wrapped up in one.

What do you do on April Fools Day? I love pranking my kids. They wake up with marker mustaches, swapped clothing drawers, and switched out cereal boxes. And that’s just the beginning. 

I don’t care for the mean jokes. They take the fun right out of it for me. No plastic wrapped toilet seats for this girl! 

I will take wrapping off of chocolate Easter eggs and re-wrap it around grapes to pack inside lunches. To some people that’s real torture … taking away their chocolate.

But what should I do for an Easter April Fools joke? Spinach stuffed chocolate bunny? Carrots and empty candy wrappers in their Easter baskets? I’ll definitely have to do some hunting for inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration …

Last week’s project used designs to fill in the letters of April. I gathered designs from things that grow here in spring, such as forsythia, crocuses, and lilies. Then, I painted mini designs to decorate the letters.

The project this week takes our work with patterns to pictures. 

Easter eggs!!! Who doesn’t love to paint an egg or two. 

Today, I played a joke on my painting. This little welsh harlequin duck has a nest full of Easter eggs. Won’t that make a colorful hatching when her ducklings arrive?!

 

 

Here are the steps I took to make her in case you want to give her a try.

Draw the basic shapes.

First, I did a little research and gathered a few reference photos of my subject to get a feel for how she looks.

 

 

I like to use my dip pen to go over my pencil sketches. Sumi ink is a beautiful matte black and the nib adds depth and character with the varied strokes it creates.

 

 

Think in layers.

When using watercolor, I try to think about a painting in layers, starting with the light background colors. On this painting, I painted the background for the eggs before adding the designs and the light colors on the duck feathers  before adding the darker colors.

 

 

Allow time for it to dry between layers. 

When the first layer dried completely, I added designs to the eggs, the darker feathers to the duck, and the straw to the nest.

Sometimes, I need to set a piece aside completely to let it dry and sometimes, I can let pieces of it dry while I work on other areas of the painting.

 

Finishing touches.

On this momma duck, I added a few finishing touches with gelly roll pens. Some of her feathers have white accents, and a couple of the eggs now have shimmery colors.

 

 

Below is a Happy Easter Egg printable for you, so you can design some eggs too. Just print it out onto watercolor paper and paint away!

Happy Easter Egg Printable

 

Make it Yours. Keep looking for more patterns and designs. Continue to think about what parts you like and what parts you don’t like. Add extra colors or vary the shapes. Be bold. Mix it up a bit.

 

Extra Challenge: Add an April Fools joke picture with patterns.

 

Happy Creating!

I’d love to see what you’re working on. Just post it on Instagram to #patchesofordinary. Don’t forget to tag me @joanneegroff so I can see it too.