A painting trip in Scotland...

 Capturing Scottish landscapes (or trying to)!

After my PhD, we have planned a road trip to Scotland with a friend of mine and my boyfriend to celebrate the end of this busy era. In the meantime I fell for watercolors and plein-air painting, so I decided to use this opportunity to sketch Scotland on location!

Please, don't use any of the images (even reference photos) without asking in the comment section or by sending an email!

A day in Edinburgh - 14.08.23

We arrived in Edinburgh the day before but only had time for a nice walk in the city and a dinner in the old town. On the 14th, the weather was beautiful (despite the pessimistic weather forecast). Everything in Edinburgh was incredibly painting-genic and I was itching to stop and paint every few steps! 

Part 1 - Holyrood Park

In the morning, I stopped at the feet of Holyrood Park to make a quick watercolor painting. I sketched beforehand with my blue erasable colored pencil and then went on with colors. It was incredibly hard to find the right colors as: 1) the colors were incredible and very different from the ones I was used to; 2) the sky kept changing, and so did the colors. The beautiful weather also made it hard to do wet-on-wet technique as my paper tend to dry a little bit too fast. But on the bright side, it was a beautiful place, I could test out my setup and was very happy with how convenient it was, and I started to get more familiar with the Scottish color palette!

Holyrood park of Edinburg. I ended up using a lot of alizarin crimson hue for the rocks, as they had this reddish/pinkish/purple-ish color. I struggled a lot for the very pale parts of the greenery, which was a white-yellow color. I used a mix of yellow ochre / lemon hue and white. For the shadows I switched between viridian green, dioxazine purple and ultramarine.

Part 2 - Holyrood Park again! Arthur's seat

In the afternoon, we went back to Holyrood with the idea to go up Arthur's seat. I decided to stay down and set up to paint again. This time, I took my time and decided to sit down instead of using my tripod. I used watercolors, gouache and colored pencils to try and capture the beautiful rocks. It was fun to experiment with different media and play with the composition a bit. When sketching I also paid more attention to the shapes and shadows, to have a more solid base before going on top with colors. 

Here is the final sketch. It's a bit messy, but I really enjoyed working with gouache on top of watercolors.

A zoom on what I tried to paint. I always find it hard to get the right composition... Maybe I'll invest in a view-finder one day!

The view from where I was seated

As I had some little time left before dinner, I decided to try a quick sketch with pencils and fineliners. It reminded me of geological sketches and it was fun to experiment with my colored pencils. I chose the colors right before going to Scotland so I was not that familiar with it, but I enjoyed the choice of colors made. I felt like I was missing a dark green and maybe different earthy tones but other than that it was great.

Here is what the spread looked like at the end of the day! 

Arriving at the Cairngorms - 16.08.23

We took the car from Edinburgh to a lovely Airbnb near Alford, really close to the Cairngorms. The landscapes while we were driving were incredible, with a beautiful light. 

Unfortunately, the next day was quite wet and gray, and I felt tired from all the car journey. I decided to stay home to paint, which ended up being really cosy and nice. I sat by the window to paint the Airbnb we were in. I used mostly gouache, but made a first layer of wet-on-wet watercolors on top of my sketch. And I used my colored pencils and white pens for the final touches.

A sketch with my erasable blue colored pencil. Wet-on-wet first layer, to set an undertone before going in with gouache.

Working with gouache on top of the first layer.

Once the details were added with the white paint pen and the colored pencils

At the very end, my boyfriend made me realize that the bottom part of the painting had a very weird perspective... So I decided to cover it up and use it to: 1) showcase the colors I've used mostly (Payne's Grey, Persan Yellow, Primary Blue, Ultramarine and Red Ochre) and 2) add a caption! 

The final painting of the day!

A (small) hike in the Cairngorms

The sky was still dark when we woke up the next day, but we decided to go anyway. We crossed wonderful landscapes, and finally arrived at Glenmore. 

Lunch & paint!

We stopped in a parking up the Loch Morlich, at Glenmore and had lunched with a beatiful view. I couldn't resist and took out my sketchbook and watercolors. As it was supposed to be a quick break, I worked quite fast with my watercolors and my stablo easel on my lap. However, I had trouble balancing everything (especially with the midges going at war with us...), so I ended up taking my tripod out. And then adding some colored pencils and fineliners...

Trying to balance on my lap...

... but ending up setting up my tripod!

First painting of the day! More of a landscape sketch, but it was nice to get to know the landcape and its colors.

Going up the moutain

Then, the boys were highly motivated to go up a small path taking us to the top... I started with them (the path was beautiful, but steep...) but decided to stop mid-way to paint another view. This time I took out all of my stuff, sat on a rock and used my tripod and easel to paint. I wanted to capture more of a panoramic view of the landscape with watercolors and gouache. It was quite hard to break down the landscape into different shapes, as there were so many layers of hills. The sky was changing quite fast, and so were so colors, so it was definietely a challenge! After about 35min, I packed my things and got back to the car to put the final touches. I ended up simplifying the landscape: I only worked from the painting, not looking anymore at the landscape, trying to find out how to make it more readable.

Watercolors, gouache and final touches with colored pencils. I overworked it a bit, but still quite happy with the result!

My final Cairngorms spread!

Clouds, rain, and gray - going up North

Unfortunately, I couldn't do any plein-air watercolors (or any sort of art practice) in the next days. The weather was very humid, and we had a lot of driving time...

However, we saw some incredible landscapes, and I took a few pictures as reference for future art works. I think I'll take a Skillshare class on reference photos when I come back!

Sandsilver beach

On the A830

Loch Shiel

I only had time to do a quick watercolor study (at the Airbnb) of the Glenfinnan viaduct, made famous by the Harry Potter movies (among others). 

Glenfinnan viaduct

Quick watercolor study of the Harry Potter viaduct

Glasgow and Loch Lomond

Saint Mungo Cathedral, and a window with a view

For the last days of our trip, we came back South and settled near Glasgow. Here, the weather was (a little bit) better for sketching, but we did not have time that much time. On the first day, we visited Glasgow and I could do a quick sketch with fineliners of the cathedral while my friends were visiting it. 

Coming back in the evening, there was a very nice light on the loch (which we could see from the window of our Airbnb). So, I settled by the window and made a mixed-media sketch of the view. For once, I started with colored pencils and went on top with watercolors. I really like how it turned out, and the texture I could get with this simple technique.

Painting by the window with colored pencils, fineliners and watercolors. I also added a wash of colors on the cathedral!

That's how the final page looks like!

Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond

Before a nice tea with sheeps (yes, with sheeps!), we had a picnic by the lake, not so far from Ben Lomond (the start of the trail to the top!). The weather was nice... before it was not nice anymore! So, I only had time to quickly capture the landscape with colored pencils and a first wash of watercolors. 

Quick, before the rain!

Back home, I finished the sketch by adding some fineliners on-top (with the help of a reference picture I took back there - see above)! I really like this combo :)

A not-so-nice weather, but a beautiful view :)

Final sketch!

Last day...

On the last day, the weather was (again) uncertain, so I decided to paint from the window again! I wanted to play with colored pencils and gouache, and especially worked on the colors of the sky. I sketched with colored pencils (as always, my perspective is was funky...) and went on top with gouache.

Painting by the window again... Purple pencil for sketching and gouache

For the last sketch, I also tried to play with fun colors, and stayed on the purple tones!

Playing with colors!

And here we come to the end of this trip to Scotland... the last spread!

Last page of the trip...

Lessons learned...

I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't paint more outside, but I came back with plenty of reference photos for future artworks!

This trip in Scotland was a perfect opportunity to learn about my plein-air setup! My bag was very convenient to carry all of my supplies, plus some extra clothes for the Scottish weather. On the downside however, it was quite heavy, and I couldn't do some "real" hiking with it. For a next time, I'll have two setups: a lighter one to go hiking (I still have to figure out which bag to take), and this one for painting trips (focused on long plein-air session more than hikes). 

I also really want to try plein-air with different supplies: dried gouache, markers, sketching set, etc. to have even more diversity and adapt to different timing/weathers. But, I first have to figure out how, what, where... 

On my bucket list for next time? A 100% cotton sketchbook, a handmade sketchbook with toned paper, different gouache brands and maybe another watercolor palette...