Composition for boats -where is my pencil thumbnail??

I know I know. I'm supposed to start with pencil thumbnails to figure out shapes and values. But you know me. Give me juicy watercolours any time! That's how I operate. It works for me. I'm not in any rush!

For this first set, I just used whatever paints were in my palette. The usual suspects. They always work. 

 

This is my favourite of the two. I used Lilac watercolour (Is it Lilac? It's not Lavender from Daniel Smith, but it's also an opaque pigment). Then I also added white gouache. Which is ideal for all those railings and riggings. I don't know what those things are called! And I do like the almost square shape. It works well for the composition, with the little sailboat at the front leading the eye in to all the big fishing boats.

Then I did some more experiments with different colours. I know I had Alizarin Crimson, and also Cerulean Blue Chromium. I can't remember the other two colours.

And then I went more abstract and had fun with it. It's a long journey. I have the time.

More boats

Am I ready to paint boats? Probably not, but that's not going to stop me from trying! This is a view from Balbriggan that's been tempting me for a while now. But I never thought I could do it. Until last week's Sketching Playlab, where I learned a way to tackle a complex scene without being overwhelmed! Next, onto composition plans!

This one is another version of the busy harbour in Vietnam (photo from Paul Wang). I like this quieter interpretation.

Busy version (top) vs quiet version (bottom) - quiet is a relative concept. I lean on the lively side. Lots of lively lines, but I did tone down the colours in the bottom version.

Not sure which is busy and which is quiet in this first exploration! But it's good that they feel like fishing boats even if they don't exactly look like it.

And a little abstract - all part of the play.