Duck Outlines: 20 Line Drawings of Ducklings, a Decoy, a Rubber Duck and Pond Scenes

These duck outlines are line drawings in plain black, the kind of duck you’d see at a park pond rather than a cartoon character. Each one has a simple eye, a clear bill and a few strokes for the wing and tail feathers, and the twenty designs follow a duck through its day.

A duck’s day in twelve poses

The first designs show the basics. One stands still on both feet (01), one floats with a ripple underneath (02), and one lifts off with its wings raised and feet trailing (03). Three ducks fly in a diagonal line in design 04.

The rest are behavior you’d notice if you watched one for a while. A duck naps with its bill tucked into its back (09), another twists round to preen its wing (10), one waddles with a foot lifted mid-step (11), and one stands and spreads both wings wide (12). Design 15 faces you straight on with its feet planted, 16 is a duck upended in the water with only its tail and two paddling feet showing, 17 dips its bill into the water, and 20 is a tall standing duck that the design index calls Looking Back.

Ducklings, a decoy and one rubber duck

A mother duck walks ahead of two ducklings in design 05, and design 06 is a single round, fluffy duckling with a big dark eye. Design 08 is a carved decoy with a wood-grain swirl on its side, and 07 is a classic rubber duck: a smooth bath-toy shape with a curved wing. It’s the only toy duck in the set; everything else is a live bird.

Pond scenes

Four designs add a little setting: a duck floating beside two cattails and tall reeds (13), a duck inside a large circle (14), a duck next to a water lily (18) and two ducks swimming toward each other (19), one with a ring around its neck.

Line for coloring, solid for a plain shape

The line version is the one with character. It colors in nicely, and the guide suggests black ink for tracing. The solid version is a simplified silhouette, so the eye, feathers and water lines disappear into one black shape. Most solids are a single piece, while a few, such as the flying trio, the family, the reeds and the upended duck, come as several separate shapes. The pond circle keeps its open center in both versions. According to the guide, the line files are filled contour paths, not single center-line strokes, and for a cut stencil, small parts like eyes, reeds and ripples may need bridges or a different transfer method.

Pages and sizing

Each 62-page PDF has 20 large pages of line drawings, then five four-per-page and four six-per-page sheets that group different ducks, the same 29 pages again in solid, and the four tracing templates. On US Letter the large-format ducks print about 6.3 inches at their longest. The four-per-page sheets use 3-inch artboards and the six-per-page sheets 2.25-inch ones, and the last six-per-page sheet holds only two ducks. Print at 100% and check the 1-inch calibration bar on the multi-design sheets. In the digital files each duck sits on an 8-inch artboard and reaches about 6.6 inches, so crop or measure the actual paths if you need an exact finished width.

Questions

Does the solid version keep the eyes and feather lines?

No. The solid files are simplified silhouettes, so the eye, the bill line and the feather strokes all disappear into one black shape. The pond circle in design 14 is the exception that stays open, a ring around the duck in both versions.

Are the four tracing templates extra designs?

No. They repeat four of the twenty, the standing duck, the duck taking off, the duckling and the decoy, as line drawings on their own pages at a slightly larger size than the regular large-format pages.