Found the paints again

The paints finally came out and as usual I hadn't a notion what to paint. I know I should practice with still lives and things actually in front of me, but when you only paint ever so rarely, of course the temptation is to give something bigger a go. We were in Venice last October, so I dragged out the photos and attempted things way way beyond me. Trying stuff and faffing about are surprisingly enjoyable, even when the results are dodgy.

I would like to be able to do things more simply, but as usual, I muddle about a lot. I didn't like (among many many other things) the sort of brownish old edges from drawing with brown paint. So I tried it again with a colouring pencil! Well, it was there and I'm lazy.

It seems cleaner to me. Stoopidly I utterly forgot to draw in the top bits of the lamp shade at the start, so when I shoved them in later and ( again) lazily, so they are rottenly done, all wrong. I quite the top of the left hand boat, it kind of has a bit of that shine those gorgeous wooden boats have. 

One more attempt, which even if it had worked well, was a weird photo to choose as there is no focal point whatsoever. In fact, there is a big gap where something interesting ought to be! I also shrank the poor gondolier. Some bits on the right work a bit I think. I cannot imagine for the life of me how people go there and do this from life -bobbing boats, changing light, moving sparkling water, and the crowds!  I have utter respect for anyone who does it , I'd freak out!