I began the painting the way I begin all my paintings, from the back to the front. I also began with relatively light washes, applied in broken patterns to keep random patches of white paper showing through. Keeping the light source always in mind, I left some edges of tree trunks white as well. Once you plop paint somewhere, the white of the paper is lost, and the paper is the only source of white in a watercolor painting. So keeping the white of the paper in play as long as necessary is an important technique to master.

I use a porcelain butcher tray for a palette. So far I am using Cadmium Yellow Light, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Payne's Grey, and Permanent Green Light. This will probably be all of the colors I will use for this painting with the addition of a blue, probably Cobalt or French Ultramarine. I might also add some Indian Red to help with the rust in the glider. What I WON'T add is a black. To me, black pigment kills in watercolor. I prefer creating more luminous darks from mixing the Payne's Grey with Burnt Umber and a touch of something complimentary (a green or a red) depending on whether I want a warm dark or a cool one. Limiting the palette is one way to insure overall hue harmony and achieve a more natural look. The story calls for a bright green floral pattern on the glider cushions, but I already have the Permanent Green Light on board, so I will be fine there. This brings up a minor, but important point in illustrating: READ the story, and take accurate description notes. When you take liberties with the author's words, there had better be a good reason for it. In this case, the description of the glider was nothing more specific than it is "old" and that it is on a deck. I brought this deck around to the front of the house because I wanted to include the driveway and the out building where the protagonist does his writing. I broke the driveway at the halfway point to add a visual distance and interest to it. This wasn't described in the story, but I felt it needed it to reinforce how high and how long it is, both important aspects to the story. 

All of my "stuff" is on the left side because I am left-handed, and it is never smart to bring a loaded brush over a watercolor painting any farther than is absolutely necessary. Since I work flat (in this case, on my coffee table in my living room) this is something I keep in mind. Watercolor is not very forgiving; once the paint plops, it stays plopped.