“Nature” magazine, Watercolour illustration from start to finish.

Starting on stretched fabino 300gsm paper.

Once the main figure is drawn, I put in the details in the body, which are the things we should be afraid of but are not (i.e. de-forestation, climate change, over-fishing, usage of fossil fuels etc).

Then starting to put the colour on, I work with very dilute paint, beginning with what will be the dark areas first. Firstly cerulen blue, then when that has dried, either watery cadmium red/yellow or burnt seinna, or all of them, see how it’s feeling…. but not too dark, I find it important to go carefully with the ligter colours, kind of finding your way with the painting, then the surer you become, the darker the colours gets!

Working one or two areas at a time, I build up the layers of paint.

Last to do is the forground..