Three Door-Window Sketches

June 1-Went down to the beach for about two hours. Conditions were perfect. The steady winds out of the NW had built up a shelf of sand that was pretty level and damp and held shape well. The sky was clear and it was probably in the low 60's. There was a good feel to the afternoon. I salvaged a bunch of small flat stones from an earlier sketch and made a "door" with a window excavated out of the middle. That is the top image. Then I lined the edge with a bunch of small sticks that litter the beach. The second image is the stick lined version. The cast shadows of the sticks were pretty cool as the sun dropped. The third phase was to gather up a bunch of light colored cobbles and place them in the window. The end result was like a nest for a square assed duck.

I liked the result. There were some good light affects, cast shadows and surface variations. The textures got picked out nicely by the raking light. I would imagine that its lifespan will be pretty short but it was interesting while it lasted. There are some more things that need to be done before that mule has been sufficiently beaten