I've wanted to paint swans for long time using gouache. Although I felt very daunted by the prospect of using a medium I'm not too familiar with I decided to just go for it.

 

I watched the underpainting video lesson about 3 times as its very different to watercolour. So I watered down the gouache quite a lot  and use this as the base layer for the surface of the water. Although I left the bulk of the swans body's unpainted, after a while I understood how to add more textural marks to the tree areas in the background - I used a flat brush for that and enjoyed that part the best. Having decided towards the end to add hint of autumn leaves I was glad to simply paint them over the top - something I couldn't do with watercolor.

Thanks for helping me step out of my comfort zone. I really surprised myself.