Trying out more texture

Sometimes (most of the time actually), I like to explore a scene in many different ways before I commit to a final view. This is the view of Te Anau I painted in quarter sheet already. I'm thinking of moving up one size to half sheet. But I need to figure out how to bring some extra interest to keep the viewer travelling around the picture. I like the beach foreground, but I need to find a way to express the pebbles without losing the light. Really don't know how I'm going to do that in direct watercolour.

So I played with pen & watercolour, and gouache when things became dire. I'm not sure I'm any the wiser!! But it was fun re-exploring a Sketching Playlab session I did a good few months ago.

And I'm still emptying watercolour pans from a small palette I want to repurpose so the only yellow I had was New Gamboge. I didn't have any blue blue. But I had Cascade Green, which mixed really well with New Gamboge for that warm green feeling. And it gave me great dark greeny blues mixed with Phtalo Turquoise and Carbazole Violet. This is a great way to figure out new mixes with colours I don't use that much!

When I had completely messed up with watercolour and ink, my only option for recovery was gouache. Pointillism, here I come?

Before:

I like this thing in a sketch when I paint only part of the view, and use ink for the rest. I need to explore this idea for direct watercolour paintings, so that I keep areas light and airy. My tendency is to keep adding paint until the whole thing gets too heavy. More exploration needed.