A New Start

In the studio today, and I could put it off no longer....I said I would try some pictures of Edinburgh, so I made a start to this 'project' today.

I found myself working entirely off sketches. Did some very sketchy thumbnails first then just got cracking.  I did two rough studies today.  Here's how they developed.

Two gables emerging copyright Aileen Grant

I started working in graphite, then added some silver acrylic, white and off-white.  I had decided to make the sky dark to increase the drama of the picture and was determined not to get too tight with the marks.

Two gables copyright Aileen Grant

By this late stage I had added some dilute ink (black, red and blue).  I also used some oil bar and then went back over the steps with ink and acrylic mixed to give a sort of blobby effect (technical term).  I was quite pleased with this, and I think it was the best thing I did today, but I'll see how it looks when I go back to the studio.

The other study I did, was based on my sketch of Lady Stair's Close.  I worked on it at the same time, but I don't think the motif was as strong.

Emerging Lady Stair's Close copyright Aileen Grant

This is the start I made in graphite plus a first stab with white and silver acrylics. (That band of light  was the sun shining.) After I had used the inks, it looked like this.

Emerging Lady Stair's Close copyright Aileen Grant

 Looking at this now, I quite like the paved close, which I may have lost.  As well as the inks, I had also used some burnt orange acrylic.  However, I thought the buildings needed to be a little darker and the sky needed a bit of attention.

Lady Stair's Close copyright Aileen Grant

Again I added oilbar, some pencil marks to denote Princes Street, and worked on the trees.  I also had a go at the stonework, adding more of that burnt orange and black ink.  I'm still not sure about the windows in the right hand building, but I had run out of steam and this was just a study (bad excuse).  So I stopped it here.

Ah well...it's a start.  I've got more sketches to try out....on Friday, I hope