Greatly pleased with my first sketch of the day just around the corner, on the lovely Inner Hebridean island of Tiree, I soon decided I liked the shapes presented by this cottage view so sat down on the grass verge to work once again. I was being regularly supplied with cups of tea by a friendly local, anyway, so why not?
The light being particularly bright, I felt that a very limited palette would suffice. Wishing to achieve as much as possible in the ideal plein air working conditions presented by the day, I went straight in with my pigment ink fountain pen , making a very clear, brief line drawing, then going in with luscious gouache, being careful to work honestly as I proceeded with colour, as it is all too easy with a ‘line and wash ’ approach just to ‘colour in’ an initial drawing, this approach being liable to achieve a less than satisfactory, rather stilted result. I can understand the view that recommends that colour is used alongside line when sketching to produce the desired vibrant result and thus hopefully capture the immediacy of the moment!
Hebridean postcards 