I took a photo of a green heron at Seattle's Union Bay Natural Area in June which was my reference for this painting. It doesn't look very green--I tried to be faithful to the colors I saw. My guess is that these herons look green in some light situations, but here I saw beautiful russets and blues.
What follows is a somewhat abbreviated step-by-step demonstration--I am allowing for the online blog medium! I am looking forward to teaching my class this fall on Watercolor Birds and Wildlife, and I intend to use a more complete step-by-step demonstration as a teaching aid for my students.
Step 1. I began by drawing the heron, the logs and a few major foliage areas. I used masking fluid for the white areas on the tail feathers.
Palette: hansa yellow medium, quinacridone burnt orange, permanent alizarin crimson, phthalo blue red shade, carbazole violet.
Step 2. After painting the heron, I wet the entire paper and painted in the greens of the marsh, using a flat brush to stroke in the irises and reeds. I surround the painting with 3M Drafting Tape in order to give me freedom to glaze repeatedly without backruns developing on the outside margins of the painting.
Step 3: I once again used masking fluid on the leaf shapes at right, as well as above the heron's head. In order to create the dappled light on the marsh surface, I also used it on the water where blue is still visible. I decided that the heron was not intense enough in hue or values contrast, so I corrected those areas.
Step 4. I decided the dark area behind the leaves on the right was too strong, so I wet it with water and gently scrubbed it out with a natural sea sponge. Once the corrected leaf area had dried, I re-painted the blue-green leaves, and when they had dried, I painted a saturated warmer yellow-green behind them. To view those corrections, see the finished painting above.