Revisiting the Fishing Hut

In the studio again Friday - so happy to be there as I missed Monday - and I wanted to keep the focus on the corrugated iron fishing hut.  Over the week, I had been looking at this studio sketch.

Fearnmore Hut studio sketch

Clearly it is somewhat messy, but over the week I thought I could see a good composition within it, underneath the scribbles.  So I wanted to try it again, a little differently.  I went back to one of the sketches I did on the spot to capture a better look of the fishing hut.  I started with charcoal and added some oil bar.

Fearnmore Fishing Hut - emerging picture stage 1

When I reached this point, I noticed that the shore behind the hut was a bit lighter than I had intended, but I felt that this worked quite well.  So when I took it to the next stage, I tried to hang onto this.  I also wanted to capture a more ghostly and mysterious look, and decided to darken it down with graphite and ink at the same time as adding white acrylic.  So the next stage looked like this.

 

Fearnmore Fishing Hut - emerging picture Stage 2

There are gains and losses in this.  The contrast is better and the treatment of the hut now suggests windows and other interest; but I have lost some of the marks which gave the picture energy and interest.  I then took a fresh piece of paper - thick watercolour paper - and decided to have a go at the same composition with a little bit of colour.

Fearnmore Fishing Hut - emerging picture Stage 3

 I started in charcoal and then realised that I had forgotten to add gouache, so I added this a little late.  I liked the foreground pebbles treatment in this, but it was a little difficult to hang onto.  I should of course have protected it with masking tape or masking fluid, but this didn't occur to me at the time.  Anyway, I added more ink and water, and the next time I stopped, it looked like this.

Fearnmore Fishing Hut - emerging picture Stage 4

Sadly I've lost that delicacy in the foreground, but the black rocks look not bad.  And there is some interesting texture for the hut.  Now I'm not sure about having three buildings in the composition, so in short,  I'm still not sure about the strength of the picture.  Ah well.  I need to think a bit more carefully before I make another attempt.