Old sketch that I did in Rocky Nook Park

I'd spent at least a couple afternoons on it, but never finished it.
So Friday afternoon I went back to have another go at it.

After an hour or so, I decided that it was completely insane: too much detail, too busy, lousy composition, plus it would be too laborious to do as a watercolor...Acchh!
So I started back to my car, intending to leave in disgust, but was reluctant to go without having something to show for my time. So, after ten or twenty minutes of reviewing my own faults and limitations, the foolishness of trying to make a living as an artist, and the general state of the world, I pulled out some charcoal and started walking, looking for subjects.

Which produced this and the one below. I liked this composition because it got the rocks in, that being the defining characteristic of the park, plus it has the curving road and an old sandstone wall which echoes the shape of the road.

This is pretty rough, but hey, it's a sketch.The way the light was hitting the ground in front of the bench gave some nice drama to the scene.

The thing about that first sketch is that, while now it seems a throw away, with the right lighting conditions, it might turn out to be something good. What exactly those conditions are I don't know. Early morning? A foggy, misty scene? Light streaming through at a low angle?

I like this charcoal stuff more and more all the time.