Pastel Piece

I haven’t been in my studio for a while because I have been spending my days at my computer … not just blogging, but writing as well.  I am putting together a collection of essays for my children, bits and pieces of all of us that they can stick on the bookshelf until someone expresses an interest.  But I shall return to the studio soon; my fingers are itching to pick up a pastel and see what comes of it.

This is a work in progress of the last piece I worked on.  I am still new to pastels but I am thoroughly enjoying them.  I feel I have more control, and the act of painting is much more direct than painting watercolours with my brush.

I really admire the work of Richard McKinley and on this piece I tried his method of doing a watercolour underpainting.  Most of what you see here is watercolour although I had started to put on pastel before I remembered to take a photo.

Doing a very loose watercolour first dealt with a lot of the angst I had looking at the blank paper.  With that in place it was a lot easier to begin with the pastels. I am working within the restriction of a limited palette as I build up my selection of colours, as I can afford them.

I struggled a lot with the perspective of the road but I was pleased with the way the trees on the right were shaping up – I am never confident when doing a lot of foliage, although I am finding it easier than I do with watercolours.

Another thing I like about pastels is that I can go back in and tweak or bloody well change the whole thing which is pretty much impossible with watercolours.  Pastels are better suited to my inherent desire to tweak.

This is how it looks now – final I think as it has been sitting on my easel for sometime now and has not beckoned me back for another tweak, or worse, an entire face lift.

I still don’t have the perspective I would like; this is the second piece I have done of this scene – I may yet try a third.