Swan at Sunset with Reflections

A white swan curving its neck low over a sunset lake, the water around it rippling in stripes of yellow, peach, lavender, and deep blue. Behind, distant mountains cut a jagged purple silhouette against a sky that bleeds from buttery gold into rose and violet. The image reads as one long horizontal gradient interrupted by a single bright bird.

The reflection takes up nearly as much real estate as the swan itself. Long vertical bands of warm and cool light run from the waterline down to the bottom of the frame, which means the colorist's main job is matching the sky's palette to the water and letting the reflection sell the illusion. The swan stays mostly white. The work is the water.