🦢 Swan

021 Swan

A painting I copied from one of the very best photos I have taken.

The painting is also amongst my best artworks.

Here's how I did it

So this started of as a challenge for myself.  I wanted to paint an animal or bird from a photograph that I had taken.  So the only photo that was ever in the running was this one below taken at Waverley Abbey in 2014 and it is one of my favourite photos.

© Rosa Foulger - 2014

For this project I have chosen this photo that I took at Waverley Abbey, Farnham in 2014.  It is a favourite of mine and I hope it's as easy to paint as I am hoping.

I started off by preparing the 8"x 8" canvas.  I taped it to a board so I could handle it easily without marking it with fingerprints and so on.  I also printed the photo out onto a piece of A4 sized paper.  I then cut the Swan and his reflection out to make one template.  I put a level pencilled centre mark on each side of the canvas as this would be a guide to where the Swan ends and reflection begins.  I made sure it was marked on surrounding board quite obviously too in case paint went over it.  I then worked in exactly the same way as I did HM The Queen's picture.  I painted a rough background and then drew around the template, being careful to line up the centre of template with the guidelines I had drawn on my prepped canvas and board.  

It was then a case of colouring it in and adding the details.