This Thursday was a wonderful sunny day and the temperature I reckon was at least 20c. We took the chance to go meet up with our number 1 son Nathan in Largs. This time we would go across to Millport. As we sat on the beach watching our ten year old go into the water with all his clothes on, I could not help but look over the water to the islands. How could I remember all of this beauty and the subtle shapes and shades of cloud?  The painting I had done last week was nowhere like reality! SO off to the Poundbasket shop I went and bought 3 sketch books for one pound along with some pencils. The whole family got drawing and it was great fun.

This has helped me to remember the important points such as how the yacht is shaped and I focussed on the part of Arran which you could see beyond Cumbrae. The colour of Arran was a lovely grey/blue and you could see it in three places behind the island. I looked to the right and saw a huge conglomeration of islands and guessed Islay and Kintyre were there. It was fun doing this and then we went on the ferry to MIllport ! How beautiful it was and the highlight of course was seeing the Crocodile Rock. All the tourists had a picture taken with it! It had a fresh coat of paint on it too!

Using a sketch book is an ideal way to record what you are interested in.

Well done to Gordon who did a lovely sketch of the scene - he included everything in it including the pebbles!
I did some drawing of the details and areas which inspired me and the next day drew a sketch of this image - see above. It was much easier to create this image because it was not just from memory.