Christmas Swan 2

After Sar suggested the Christmas Swan would be a good addition to the game I decided a more exotic version was required.  It also gave me the opportunity to practise the negative watercolour painting techniques.  I picked the colours of sunset for the swan and started the painting with some weak washes of this colour across the paper and then added some blue around the swan's outline.  On top of this I painted the swan.

I drew in the outline of the wave motif and then painted round the shapes in a series of washes.  I painted over some of the waves to vary their tone.   The photo shows a wash in progress.

I gradually deepened the washes and added some prussian blue in places.  I started to paint the sky with washes between the cloud shapes.  

As I liked the red and gold showing through the sky I didn't use as many washes as I did on the water. Finally I gave the swan an eye and tinkered with his beak to finish the picture.  Now I just have to give it a story in the game!