Staying with the motif

Went into the studio yesterday...wasn't sure what to do...decided to focus on two images - the Lochcarron waterfront and the Applecross fishing hut.  I wanted to try these in colour again - studies in acrylic in preparation for doing a version in oils.  I started with the Lochcarron one, using only carmine and ultramarine on watercolour paper.

Lochcarron Waterfront 3 (emerging)

Then I added some white acrylic and water.

Lochcarron Waterfront 3 (emerging)

Then I tried to darken it a bit more, and used a thin stick for different marks.

Lochcarron Waterfront 3 (emerging)

Then I added more marks (thinking about the houses, trees and boats) and a little more blue.

Lochcarron Waterfront 3 (emerging)

I wasn't sure about the palette, but was worried about going too far, so I set this to one side and embarked on the fishing hut. I wanted to try it in a landscape composition - I think this might work well - and I used a piece of Japanese paper that I had primed with various colours of gouache, and I also added lemon yellow to the acrylics.  It's always interesting with gouache underneath because it starts to mix with the acrylic in a random manner.  So after some initial work it looked like this.

Applecross Fishing Hut (another version emerging)

I was trying hard to get some good texture for the corrugated iron hut.  Actually, looking at this again, I quite like the roof and the sea - it gives an impression of light which I think I may have lost by drawing back into it.  I decided to darken the sea down a bit, lighten the sky and add some black ink - not sure if this was wise.  But, hey-ho, it's done now!  Here's how it ended up...

Applecross Fishing Hut (another version emerging)

I think the palette works OK on this (the contrast of the blue and orange).  But I'm still going to try some colour sketches over the weekend before I come back into the studio on Monday.