Stage 4: Here I've started to paint the water, working the scattered floating dead reed stems into the wet paint. Working 'wet-in-wet' in this way I have also lightly indicated a few submerged reeds that are just visible below the surface. Although the change is subtle, there are three shades of blue already as the colour gradually darkens towards the bottom of the picture.

Stage 3: I decided to roughly paint in the trees first as I needed to 'know' what they looked like before I could paint their reflections in the water. At the same time I tested out some blues for the water next to the tree trunks to make sure the colours and tones worked together.

Stage 2: Still using diluted paint I've finished blocking in the water and have added a few dark areas at the bases of the tree trunks where the wood is wet, and have indicated the positions of the reflections of the trees. With a bit of free time at the end of the day I added some colour to the teal although this is not really important at this stage.

Stage 1: This will be an oil painting. Having stained the board with a light wash of burnt sienna I have roughly drawn in the basic composition in thin paint diluted with turps. This dries very quickly so I can then start painting over the top the next day. I've already started putting in the dark spaces of clear water between the criss-cross pattern of floating reed stems at the bottom of the picture. This helps both to establish the darkest tones of the painting and to roughly map out the patterns of dead reeds.