I had a collection of photos I took of swans on the Thames in the summer and decided to arrange them in a less haphazard grouping. I liked the way the evening sun highlighted the edges of the plumage.
Other wildlife paintings are on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com
graham mcquade 
What a beautiful, peaceful painting. I’m inspired by the water and reflection. The minimal strokes are so effective.
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Thanks Sharon. The water is made up of a variegated wash, getting darker nearer the bottom, then I added darker stripes of stronger colour whilst the wash was wet. This can be done by turning the paper 90 degrees or adding some gum Arabic to the second wash. In this case I did neither and went for it, but its knowing the relative strengths.
When that was dry I added the accents of the ripples, dampening some sides and ends with water
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Thank you for sharing your steps, very instructive!
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