Sketching between showers

Up in Lochcarron again, but the weather not so good.  Making the most of the spells when the rain and snow let up.  Indoors, I was reviewing a little watercolour I did on the last visit - put it into a small frame and it looks not too bad. Sometimes things surprise you.  I painted this from a pen and ink sketch I did in the Coulags in January.  Peter likes it!

A Little Group of Birches

But I was restless to go outdoors, and the weather was a little less grey yesterday. I felt that I needed to get out and gather some sketches while I'm here.  So when the sun came out I ventured over to the shore with my sketch pad.

Yellow Boat

This little yellow boat bobs about in the navy blue sea and rests at low tide in the umber colours of the seaweed.  But, looking at the sky, I wasn't confident that I would get time for a colour sketch.  So I started with charcoal.  Then it was back to my favourite subject - Slumbay. Using graphite this time.

Slumbay Sketch

I'm always striving for that perfect sketch of Slumbay - not sure if I'll ever get to that point.  I was also thinking about foregrounds and how to make the right marks to capture these in a more interesting way.  Then I remembered that I also wanted to try out a new sepia sketching pen, so I progressed on to ink, still thinking about foregrounds. The pen was good for drawing clumps of seaweed, I thought.

Seabank Cottage with Boat (and seaweed clumps)

However, this was as far as I got before the rain started again.  I thought this last one was a composition with some potential for a small picture so I may go back and sketch this again. I'm hoping to get a little more sketching before the end of the week...fingers crossed.