Composition For Artists - Shape Design - Movement, Contrast and Pattern

 

Ive gone slightly off script here with another photograph that I wanted to use the course material as a launch pad to sort out a picture of a water mill that I took and want to turn into an awesome drawing.
The picture is 'nice' but lacks any contrast or feeling of movement of the water. Everything seems to be in the mid values and looking flat. There are a few rectangular shapes of the building and a few rounded shapes of the vegetation.

My aim is to make this a lot more interesting to look at as a drawing by changing the perspective of the building, removing some clutter, improving the contrast to enhance the buildings and making use of the potential for a nice curvy line of the water and path receding into the distance between the buildings to the right.
At the moment I think it looks a bit bland and wouldn't stand out in a room full of pictures.

As-Is:

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Im going to work into this with some sketches and then use affinity photo mesh warp and selected levels adjustments next to see if I can find a way of making it more interesting - pulling the viewers eye around the picture.

update:
Some thumbnail sketches. I had to decide which was more important - the mill or the water. After looking at these 2 - the mill (top left) won. I think it was a more striking picture on first glance. The second picture top right pushes the mill back into the distance.
The dominant shape seems to be a trapezoid and I think there is opportunity to break it up with curved arches, doorways and brick features.
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update.
I added a few foreground plants. I thought some bull-rushes and wild yellow iris (flags) might look nice. The flags are yellow - which might be a bit bright for the foreground, I dont know - thinking.
Im liking how  this is coming together.

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After some editing :
Much better - I need to find some rushes and flowers. Lower corners looking a same-same. Maybe the lower left needs taller vegetation?
Probably as far as it could go without becoming unrealistic ? 


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