August, 2012

Taos Bushes

Well, this one was really different for me.  Even though it is soft pastel on Mi-Tientes paper (smooth side)…which I do a lot….I found that I had chosen a picture taken years ago on a trip and didn’t spend much time planning the painting.   I use thumbnail sketches about half the time in planning, otherwise, I just take a pencil or stick charcoal and  mark where things are going to be.   It’s not unusual with that method to have to make adjustments as you go along, but that’s ok with me.

In this case, it turns out that positioning within the painting wasn’t the problem.   The problem was that I hadn’t worked out exactly how I was going to illustrate the layers of rocks growing right behind the bushes and small trees.  And to make matters worse, I decided to do the foreground first……not my usual style.   I just loved those plants and couldn’t wait to start painting them.    In truth, the rocks are very complicated and would have been difficult painting in soft pastel even without the bushes.

I have to admit that I have never removed and repainted an area as many times as I did with this one.   Finally, I surrendered and just put smeary lines the color of the rocks in the background and accepted that some people will think it’s a very BROWN stormy sky or an out-of-focus landscape of sand and rocks.  So be it.  I guess sometimes I learn more than others!

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Say Goodby

Just a version of the road from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.   As you can see, I took a lot of artist’s license in both color and foliage………but that’s the fun of painting, isn’t it?   This is an 8 X 11 done on Fabriano Paper and using a whole bunch of soft pastels.   I didn’t really keep track, but I’m sure Ludwigs were predominant.    I feel like I’m heading off to blue skies and new adventures with this one.    Enjoy!    Comments are always welcome.

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Purple Mountains

Well, this was a real learning process……don’t buy cheap paper, even for practice!  I saw that the paper in the pad had texture on both sides, but I thought  it looked different and might be fun to work with.   (I tend to work on the smooth side of Mi-Tientes, etc.)    Little did I know that the texture was like a million tiny knife slits which made it difficult to cover the color of the paper (weird grey/brown), but completely controlled how the pastel worked into it.    Lots of rubbing and smudging went on.  As soon as I find the pad on the shelf with my other pastel pads, it is going to join the various items collected in the land dump where it belongs.

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