Slumbay Dreams.....

Have been in the studio a bit, working but not being hugely productive, I feel.  I thought I'd go back to doing black and white pictures and embarked on a picture of Slumbay - approximating to the view looking west from the front at Lochcarron.  I have so many sketches of this, it seemed like an obvious picture to try.

As usual, I started in charcoal and then rubbed out a bit.  So it was looking like this initially.

Slumbay with Boats - a start

Then I went over this with ink (mostly black but also some blue) and some oil crayon, oilbar, then some white acrylic.  So it looked a bit more dramatic.

Slumbay with Boats - emerging

But I wasn't sure about the composition, so I decided to crop the picture a little, and carry on with a bit more ink.  I was reasonably pleased with the result....

Slumbay with Boats

However, I had also started another version.  This was on sligtly more robust paper, and I kept the composition cropped - a square version, and this time I started in graphite rather than charcoal, and then added ink etc.  It seems to have a dreamier feel to it which, on reflection, I prefer.

Slumbay with Boats 2 - emerging

To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to finish this or not, having 'finished' the first one, but I carried on anyway.  It needed more work on the foreground and a bt of tidying up.  So I carried on with ink, graphite and conte, and a little acrylic.  It ended up pretty much like this.

Slumbay with Boats 2

It's probably a case of spot the difference.  Which is the better one?  Probably the second one, which goes to show that it's always worth working away at a theme or a motif. 

I may even do it again!  But I suppose there's no guarantee another version would please me any better.