Twenty four swans (there are if you look carefully!)) - Last September I spent a slow, slow week on the Thames on a boat. Any on board cooking smell (even spaghetti bolognese) seemed to attract a flotilla of swans, who glided over at incredible speed to investigate whether anything was going to head their way.

The curves of their necks en-masse creates a spectacular pattern and simplifying this into a handful of tones was an equally spectacular challenge, as were the decisions that were constantly being made about how much the eye was capable of 'making up' where one white body was overlaid by another (without resorting to using darker outlines). I chose not to print the beaks in orange largely because I felt this would spoil the soft blue-green palette and watery mood of the print.