Back in the Studio

After the distraction of sketching on Friday, it was back to the thumbnails today.  I suppose I felt that going out sketching had slightly interrupted my flow - and I'm determined not to get distracted from focusing on these pictures.  So I started with a black and white as a kind of 'warm-up'.  I tried to re-draw the cottage I had sketched at Fearnbeg. It turned out like this.

Fearnbeg Cottage copyright Aileen Grant

I used the ususal - charcoal, oilbar, acrylic and black ink. It's a bit messy, this, but I suppose it has a bit of liveliness, and the environment at Fearnbeg that I was trying to portray was a bit messy and unkempt.  I wasn't sure about the composition, and I struggled with the foreground. So there's a couple of things I still need to work on.  I then decided I'd had anough of acrylics and got the oils out to do some little paintings, re-working a couple I had already done.  My favourite of course is the view from the Applecross viewpoint (see post on 8th October), so I started with that.

Raasay View (Oil Study) copyright Aileen Grant

This little picture is only 18x24 cms.  I felt reasonably happy with it, but it is only small. How would it look as a larger picture? Shall I try it? Anyway, quickly on to another oil study, the one towards Attadale (see post of 15th October).

Attadale View (Oil Study) copyright Aileen Grant

There's quite a lot of sea in this, and I wasn't sure if I could make it interesting enough, but again I think it's turned out all right.  I might try this at a larger size and see how it looks.  For both these pictures I limited the palette to ulramarine, lemon yellow and crimson allizarin - I think these work well for Scottish colours.  If I do them in a larger size, I might add a little bright red to get some orange hues, but I'm not sure about this.

I also had a go at finishing off a couple of other pictures, and this one now looks satisfactory, I think.

Bass Rock from Seacliff copyright Aileen Grant

I've toned the red rocks right back to give them a more mysterious feel and added a little yellow/orange. I also made the bass rock more angular.  Anyway, I'm not sure if this works or not.  But I'm not doing any mre to this picture!