The Devil's Den, Fyfield Down, Wiltshire

The weather was very changeable on Fyfield Down yesterday. One moment the sky was blue and the light was sharply unreal; the next, it was dull and raining. Or hailing.

It might not have been ideal conditions for paper, let alone the preponderance of watersoluble media that I had with me... the first sketch (top left), in Graphitint (tinted water-soluble graphite pencils) was effectively rained-off. I went to shelter in the lee of the dolmen, and drew the second sketch from there, also in Graphitint. I added ink lines to both sketches from the shelter of the stones.

Then the weather cleared and I thought I would try a watercolour. It rained. The results (including the effect of closing the front cover of the book on the soggy painting) are shown below left.

I added more watercolour and acrylic ink at home (above right), but I'm not really all that happy with it - not least because of the "more watercolour" bit. Watercolour is a medium in which less is more, and overworking it is generally a recipe for disaster!

I did try watercolour again today, from a photograph that I took yesterday.

Edit (April 2018) -
See also:

• Back so soon? The Devil's Den and Fyfield Down, in company
• More Lino
• Devil's Den