Rubber Duck Outlines: 20 Ducks in Hats, Sunglasses and Bath-Time Scenes

Every duck here has the classic bath-toy shape: a round head, a flat bill and a body that sweeps up into a short tail. They’re cartoon ducks with big round eyes and a smile, drawn in black and white only, and there’s no lettering anywhere in the set.

Eight poses

Design 1 is the classic side view and 2 faces you straight on with a wide grin. In 3 the duck tips its bill up to look at something, 4 sits long and low as if floating, and 5 leans forward with its tail high in the air. Number 6 waves one wing, 7 has dozed off with its eyes shut, and 8 is a baby with a bigger head on a smaller body.

Eight outfits

Designs 9 to 16 are ducks dressed for something. One wears sunglasses, one a tall top hat, one a graduation cap with a tassel and one a Santa hat with a pom-pom. The others have a striped party hat, a wide sun hat tied with a ribbon, a bow tie at the neck and a small crown. Each accessory is part of the drawing rather than a separate file.

Four bath-time scenes

Design 17 lines up a mother duck and three ducklings. They follow her in single file. In 18 a duck sits in a clawfoot bathtub, 19 puts a duck inside a round frame with a few small bubbles on its rim, and in 20 the duck floats in a swim ring.

Both versions keep the face

Unlike a plain silhouette, the solid version here is black with the eyes, bill, smile and wing feathers cut out as white shapes, so the duck still has its expression. The outline version draws the same lines as closed bands. On the original 8-inch canvas the outer band is about 0.06 inch (1.5 mm) wide and the inside lines about 0.036 inch (0.9 mm). Shrink the design or use the four- and six-copy pages, and those lines get thinner. Keep that in mind for the ducklings. The eyes, bill and wing lines are separate decorative pieces, so the outline isn’t a one-piece stencil.

Paper sizes and files

Each of the 12 PDFs runs through all twenty ducks, one design per page, as a single copy or a sheet of four or six. On US Letter a single upright duck stands about 6.3 inches tall; the four-copy sheets bring it to about 3.1 inches and the six-copy sheets to about 2.4. The START-HERE file says to begin with the US Letter solid single-copy PDF and print at actual size, without fit-to-page.

SVG files use an 8 x 8 inch canvas, and the 2400 x 2400 pixel PNGs at 300 dpi cover the same 8 inches. The DXF files are in millimeters on a 203.2 mm canvas, but some programs crop to the drawing when importing, so measure before you resize. Nothing has been printed or machine-cut as a test. Try your material, size and blade on one duck before you make a batch.

Questions

Is the mother duck with her ducklings one piece?

No. Design 17 is four separate ducks standing in a row, the mother and three ducklings, so each one is its own shape. The bubble frame in design 19 is also a separate element from the duck inside it.

Are there any holiday or graduation ducks?

One of each. Design 12 wears a Santa hat with a pom-pom, 11 wears a graduation cap with a tassel, and 13 has a striped party hat. The rest of the set isn't tied to an occasion.