Experiment in colors: hen mallards

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Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby Mean Gene » Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:35 pm

In between painting what I can manage, I did an experiment in the coloring of a hen mallard. The larger G&H is what I have been doing, and the smaller Tanglefree is a variation. Which looks better, or does it really make much of a difference?



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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby 3legged_lab » Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:59 pm

I prefer a bigger contrast but I seriously doubt the ducks will care.
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby Mean Gene » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:22 pm

3legged_lab wrote:I prefer a bigger contrast but I seriously doubt the ducks will care.


I don't think they will either. However, the ducks aren't the ones paying me to flock decoys. :lol: I think I like the smaller bird better, but I still want to lighten up the head/neck area. :thumbsup:
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby JGUN » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:47 pm

I like the smaller one better. But I don't think the birds really care either way.
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby NuffDaddy » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:52 pm

I like the one on the left. I think the lighter colors stick out better than the dark brown colors.
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby Feelin' Fowl » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:09 pm

JGUN wrote:I like the smaller one better. But I don't think the birds really care either way.


Agreed
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby Rick » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:23 pm

Mean Gene wrote:I still want to lighten up the head/neck area. :thumbsup:


Looking forward to seeing that.
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby 3legged_lab » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:53 pm

Mean Gene wrote:
3legged_lab wrote:I prefer a bigger contrast but I seriously doubt the ducks will care.


I don't think they will either. However, the ducks aren't the ones paying me to flock decoys. :lol: I think I like the smaller bird better, but I still want to lighten up the head/neck area. :thumbsup:

The smaller of the 2 is the one with the bigger contrast to me too. Looks good.
Bootlipkiller wrote: all the mallards I killed today had boners do to my epic calling.
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby NuffDaddy » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:05 pm

What colors are you using for these?
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby Mean Gene » Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:40 pm

For the bigger one I started with dark brown flocking and then airbrushed the lighter color. For the smaller one I started with a caramel color flocking and then airbrused the darker color as well as going over the feathers with the lighter color. Overall I'm using the exact same colors, it the base that's different.
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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby Mean Gene » Sun Mar 23, 2014 7:53 pm

So, I took Susie down to the park to try and get a picture of her with some real ducks....and there as a severe lack of ducks. I think there was maybe 10 ducks scattered around the whole lake, and the ones that wanted to come over got chased away by geese. One of the honkers thought Susie was real because he hissed at it and pecked it on the back...THUNK! :l Best I could do this afternoon was to take a picture of a real duck and the fake duck in about the same spot. I'll try again this week when there's not so many people around the lake.



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Re: Experiment in colors: hen mallards

Postby NuffDaddy » Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:00 pm

Mean Gene wrote:For the bigger one I started with dark brown flocking and then airbrushed the lighter color. For the smaller one I started with a caramel color flocking and then airbrused the darker color as well as going over the feathers with the lighter color. Overall I'm using the exact same colors, it the base that's different.

:thumbsup:
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