Ink and wash - Take Two (and three)

Okay - if you read my last post you'll know that I decided to try once again to take my sketching on to the next stage - applying watercolour washes to them. My previous efforts left maybe something to be desired.

Okay - so I made this sketch of Mariners Quay, Aberavon Beach: -

Mariners Quay

Positives: - I like what I did with the sky. The shadows on the buildings are clear . I like the different shades of grey on the path in the foreground. The colours aren't too bright and overpowering either.
However: -
While, in my opinion, it's a definite cut above any line and wash painting I've done before, it's maybe still not quite where I'd like to be. So I looked closely at it for a while, and what eventually struck me is that it's a little bit over-drawn.

I'll try to explain that. If you compare this to the sketches I made on Saturday, you'll see that this is nowhere near as heavily shaded. That's helped. However, there are still some unnecessary lines here. The glaring one is the line of the distant hills - this could have been better done just with the paint itself. The railings on the left and the wall in front of the buildings on the right are a little fussy too.

So I tried to put these points into practice for my next sketch. For this one I picked a building in town which I've always liked. Here's the ink sketch: -

Talbot Road

As with the previous picture, I kept shading to a minimum. Unlike the previous picture, everything apart from the main building has been simplified. I've been reading up and watching some YouTube tutorials as well, and so decided to use different subtly different shades of blue for all the buildings apart from the main one. I did later apply some light washes of different shades once I'd painted the main building.

It's got something - as an urban sketch it's approaching what I want to be able to do. However. . . I still think even this is a little over-drawn. The main building is fine, but the foreground and background buildings, although simplified, are still too much. So I had one more go, this time based on a couple of boats I saw moored in the river just a wee way from the sea. Here's the original sketch:-

Boats on the Afan

Now, I think you'll agree - that's minimal. I made the decision that this picture is all about the boats, and so the boats were the only thing that I was going to do in any kind of detail. Only one tiny patch of shadings, and any lines not actually part of the boats are extremely light. The idea was to try to convey anything else with paint. Here's the finished painting:-

For once, maybe my first time, the paint is not overpowered by the ink, and the two media work to enhance each other. This was only ever a simple sketch to start with- but the colour makes it.