I finished two watercolour paintings on Thursday.

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On Thursday I finished two watercolour paintings. They were of a swan and a puffin, and the swan is pictured above. I started them two weeks previously, but I had a break from painting the week before last because I went to the 80th Anniversary of VE Day celebrations in Lichfield Market Square instead. I drew out the swan and the puffin on the Monday and Tuesday and then started painting them on the Thursday. I did the backgrounds first. The background to the puffin is just green to resemble greenery, although the background on the reference photo was actually grey clouds. The background to the swan is water, although I don't know whether it actually looks like water. Sections of the background I did in what I thought was a bluey green colour, and then otyer other sections I did with a lighter blue colour. But first I put some masking fluid on to stop the paint going on little sections. When the masking fluid was dry I painted the background. Then when the paint was dry I rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the white paper below. Then I could paint that the colour I wanted. I did this for small areas that I wanted to be darker or lighter than the area around them. While the paint on one picture was drying I worked on the other one. I did the beak of the puffin on the first week but didn't get time to do any of the detail. After my week off, this week just gone, I finished them both off. On the swan I finished off the background by adding in those little bits where the masking fluid had been. Some bits were done in a bluey green, some in a lighter blue and some in black. I also dampened the edges where one colour meets another so that it had a blurred edge rather than a crisp edge. I painted in the swan where shadows would be. Some of the shadows looked kind of a shade of lilac, some looked pink and the darkest shadow, on the swans neck, looked a darker blue. But then I thought the colour on the swans neck looked too dark, so I lightened it with a bit of water. I painted in the orange of the swans beak and I waited for that to dry before I did the black areas. Then I called it finished. On the puffin, I painted in the black on it's body and head, and then the bit where the beak meets the head. I also painted in the black around the eye and the eye itself. Then I added detail to the beak, and a little grey to give the beak substance. Then when the eye was dry I went round the edge of the eye. I got a damp brush and reweted some of the black just round the edge of the puffins face and pulled it in to colour some of the puffins face grey for shadows and definition. I also pulled some black out from the top of the puffins head and pulled that grey into the top if the puffins beak. And then I called the puffin finished. I hope you like this picture of the swan I painted. What are you lot getting up to today? I hope you are all well. Have a nice day.