Yesterday I was near to the Meadows park in Edinburgh’s South Side when I noticed the beautiful reflections on the tall tenement windows.

As the sun began to set over Edinburgh’s central park, the houses that run around the edge shone with a beautiful gradient of colours, with dark angular shapes showing the mighty trees hanging on to their final leaves.

Often wen sketching, knowing when to stop can be a difficult task. An over worked line drawing can look too dark, messy and leaving the white areas can be just as important as marking the dark. Adding colour can be the same, often I add watercolour to the whole image only then wishing I had left more white to show the contrast.

So on this sketch I asked social media, should I add colour to the sandstone or leave the sketch with only the window panes coloured?

If was a close thing with the ‘leave it like it is’ option winning 22 : 18.

So here it is once scanned. I like the fact the windows are highlighted by being the only part coloured in, sometimes it is good just to step back from the picture and leave it for a while. You can always come back to it later.

This sketch was drawn on location with a 0.3 fineliner and watercolours.