The drawing

1. Carefully draw the outline of the bridge, taking care to get the correct angle.
2. Draw a simple shape for the sheep, taking care not to make it too large or small in comparison with the bridge.

Wash one

1. Prop your board up at an angle of about 20 degrees.
2. Wet the surface of the paper with your large brush. Give it a minute to let the water soak in slightly. Now, dip your brush into the raw sienna and, starting at the top, begin to add colour to the paper.
3. Rinse your brush and add a little cobalt blue, mixing it wet-into-wet with the raw sienna.
4. When you get to the top of the bridge, rinse your brush again. Dip into the cobalt blue and paint the bridge. It will bleed into the surrounding area a little, but don’t worry at this stage. This initial wash should be quite soft. You may find you need to add a touch of burnt sienna to the blue to grey it down a little.
5. When you reach the base of the bridge, paint the foreground grass area with wet-in-wet blends of raw sienna, cobalt blue and Indian yellow.
6. Paint the two rocks with cobalt blue and a little burnt sienna. Allow this wash to dry completely.

Wash two

This step is carried out on dry paper, but colours are mixed on the surface.

1. Pick up raw sienna on your brush. Start to paint a wash in the top-left corner, working down and right. Leave some gaps to allow the lighter underwash to show through. Add burnt sienna to the top right then add a little cobalt blue.
2. Begin painting the green area just above the bridge, working from the left to the right. Mix cobalt blue, raw sienna and Indian yellow on the paper.
3. Paint this wash carefully around the top of the bridge and also the sheep. Paint a little shadow on the right side of the sheep.
4. Paint the shadow areas under the bridge using a wet-in-wet blend of cobalt blue, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. Use it also for the shadows on the two rocks.
5. Paint the foreground grasses using wet-in-wet blends of raw sienna, cobalt blue and Indian yellow. Try to create some texture by painting negative and positive shapes to indicate grass. Allow the second wash to dry.

Wash three

1. Strengthen your colours by adding a little more pigment.
2. Paint the black face of the sheep using a mix of cobalt blue and burnt sienna.
3. Under the bridge, paint the stronger darks using blends of cobalt blue, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. Use this also for the cracks, the little shadow to the right of the sheep and the stronger foreground rock shadows.
4. Use stronger green mixes for a few details in the grass.

The finished painting

Fernworthy Clapper Bridge, watercolour on Bockingford NOT 200lb (425gsm) watercolour paper, (19x28cm)

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