The Proud Mother

I've had another stab at the reeds, must admit I'm beginning to loose patience with them. Anyway, I'm going to wait for some word from my forum, in the meantime feel free to leave some advice, it will be very welcome!

The Proud Mother, I need a critique!

Well this is where I'm at. Stumped! I know the reeds aren't great, but, not sure how to improve them. There are bits I really like in this painting, however I haven't yet got the painting to flow as a whole composition. As usual I've put this up on my art forum, they now know I like an honest critque, so hopeful to get some advice.

The Proud Mother, wip day 5

Finished the ducklings today. I love my little one in the foreground giving it some! Next I need to work the water and reflections in around them, then I can fluff them up a bit more. I have decided that I want the main focus on the mother, obviously due to the title, so I have kept the ducklings in a slightly softer focus. Tomorrow I hope to have this close to completion. The water needs to finished, and also I need to have a bit of a go at the reeds.

The Proud Mother, wip

I've started to think about the water and the reflections. I've blocked in the basic colours of the reeds too. I've worked in some pastel pencils, couldn't quite resist using pastel! Tomorrow I want to finish the ducklings in the foreground, and get the idea of the rest of the water. Then I need to decide upon my focal point, and work in some overall contrasts.

I had a slow day painting, I really struggled to capture the ducks breast. For now I'm satisfied, I may come back to it later once I get further into this painting. This painting is going to take some time, I haven't even begun the hard bit - the reflections on the water.

Wip day 2, Ducks

I've roughly applied some colour today, I like to have a skin on the paper. I started to work on the mother duck, and soon decided to use some watercolour pencils to achieve the texture of the feathers. I've added some purples and blues into the plumage to bring it out of what will be mainly a green background.

The Proud Mother, Wip

I've had to put my self portrait to one side, strangely due to ill health. Since having flu last month my chest has been bad. The dust from the extra soft pastels I've been using for my self portrait has been aggravating it. So for now I have decided not to use pastels, so this new painting is going to be in gouache.
Obviously of ducks, I'm going to be using a very restricted palette of mostly greens. There are some beautiful reflections to capture. The composition is from a series of photos I took in Richmond Park in the Isabella plantation. I particularly like the duckling in the foreground, who has some real attitude!