The size of this painting is 30" by 32" on a smooth, portrait-textured linen that's been double, oil primed. Susan usually sets up her still-life first, decides what her composition will be, and then stretches a tape measure across the front of the actual set-up to determine the size of her canvas. That's a quick way to make sure you'll get the height to width proportion correct, as well as getting the subject around life size.

Susan's main inspiration for setting up this still-life was the duck, so that served as the starting point for the painting. You can still see the initial wash-in on the canvas, which is achieved by thinning down the paint with mineral spirits and brushing it on with a bristle brush. To get the proportions right, Susan used the duck's head as the unit of measurement. Once she'd figured out it's exact size and placement on the canvas, she just measured subsequent objects off it to arrive at the desired composition.