Today I was sketching the distant hills around the big bay that Gisborne sits beside - visible from the western end of Sponge Bay. As usual, I started with a couple of thumbnails:

I had trouble with the hills for some reason. I thought I would just get on with the sketch, see if I could find a way forward. I was using pastel chalks, as usual, and sketching on Canson Mi Tientes paper. It was still difficult to get the hills in the right proportion. I had a bit of headland in the foreground - it was low tide and there was a causeway of rocks visible going out to Tuamotu Island which sits in the bay. I started by making the headland too big and then didn't have room for the mountains. Then I made the mountains too long, then too short! I rubbed them out four times before finally getting something I was reasonably happy with. I felt very relaxed about this though, because I think it's good for my brain to be thinking about objects in relation to other objects, and the discipline of trying to represent them in some way. Overhead there were skylarks singing their hearts out, and the occasional paradise ducks shooting across the airspace.