In 1981 Carl Barks obtained his second and final permission from the Walt Disney Corporation to take up paintings with duck motifs (see more HERE). The permission was given with the understanding that the new paintings would be used as basis for a restricted number of lithographs thus enabling a wider audience to enjoy Barks' work (see the complete listing on finished duck paintings from the 1980s HERE). Furthermore, Disney allowed Barks to sign his name on the paintings without the copyright mentioning of the company.

Whenever Barks decided to make a new duck painting he went far longer than the average artist in terms of preliminary work (you can see an example of some of his extended work processes on another painting HERE). Typically, he divided the picture area into small compositional sections, and then he made countless tissue sketches of the sections of the painting, from character groups to tiny objects, that were to be placed in the final painting. When the sketches were thoroughly worked through and pencilled in, he placed the transparent tissues on a board and moved them around until he found the best composition. After that Barks began painting. But he did not start on the board that would eventually wind up as the finished painting! No, Barks usually made more than one so-called preliminary painting, in which he experimented heavily with expressions, details, three-dimensional means, light settings, and colours. In that way a simple preliminary painting would be repainted over and over until Barks was finally satisfied. Then he started on the real painting!

When you compare Barks' preliminary paintings to the end products in the sub-pages you will discover numerous differences, although the details all look fairly identical at first glance. Take some time to closely examine the images and you can almost sense how Barks' thoughts changed and developed during the process. Many of the alterations are quite subtle while others are very visible. One general alteration - easily visible in most of the sub-pages - is Barks' use of more douce and pastel-like colours in the end product; often the backgrounds ended up being almost misty to look at.