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Filtering by Category: Pastel
Another hour today, focusing on the clouds and the mountains. I don't think I can use fixative with this piece. It darkened it WAY too much. Maybe if I use white paper, I can use fixative, but with darker surfaces it is no good. Ah well. It was worth a try.
New piece! Finally! To be perfectly honest, I haven't the faintest idea exactly how much time I spent on this today. If I include figuring out which reference photo to use and setting up the surface and finishing up my pastel cleaning project and all that, then I spent a good three hours (perhaps more)...but in terms of time spent putting pastel to paper? I'd say probably about 1.5 hours. Maybe 2.0. So I'll call it 1.7 for the hell of it, and call it a day.
I'm giving a new surface a try -- this painting is on Richeson Unison pastel board. It's extremely gritty. Good for holding layers; not so great for blending! I am also going to use fixative with this piece, although this photo was taken before fixative was applied. Hopefully applying the fixative won't make too much of a difference, although at this stage it doesn't much matter.
Did some more edits later in the evening...it is now done!
And of course, I decided to wipe all that turbulence out and have at it once more. An hour and a half today spent obsessing over this turbulence nonsense. Again. It's getting a little ridiculous; I have to just let it go, make peace with the fact that it isn't a perfect painting. I made it much more subtle. Not sure whether that's good or bad, but however it looks tomorrow is how it will remain...Might work on this some more later today. Not sure yet. Need to let the dust settle, quite literally.
Hmm...what should I do today? I know! How about I make a radically different decision about the turbulence! What a fantastic plan.
I think I like it better than before, but I need to spend some time not looking at it before I can be sure. Have to finish before May 1. Otherwise I'll miss the deadline for the Hudson Valley Art Association show.
And then, after this is finished, I really have to pick up the pace. I can't spend all my time feeling paralyzed about paintings that are 90% where I want them to be but 10% off the mark. I'll learn more from doing ten paintings in a month than I will from agonizing about one.
Two more hours today.
Still more work on the turbulence. Two hours today. Need to bring back some of the darks, which I lost as I worked (and reworked and reworked) the foreground.
Just half an hour today -- I have to get ready to go to my figure drawing class, but I wanted to at least do something with this. Did some more work on the turbulence. It is so damn close! I'll be glad when it's over...I am getting the itch to work on something new.
Still trying to get the turbulence to look right. There has to be something in the stream in the lower right of the painting...if it's just all verdant green shadow, it's boring. But I just can't get it the way I want it. Another two hours today.
I still can't decide how I want to deal with the turbulence. So alas, this painting will remain unfinished this week. I did do a single-day painting, but I don't like it, so I don't want to post it.
1.2 hours today.
Well, it appears that I am still not ready to let go of this piece. But it is really close to being done. I will finish this thing before Friday, and I will paint at least one single-day painting this week. 1.4 hours on this piece today.
I am really struggling with the water in the foreground. I decided that the turbulence didn't work with the composition the way it was, and I think I like where it's going now, but I'm not sure. So, rather than continue to revise it over and over again, I'm going to sleep on it. I spent about 1.7 hours on this today, even though it doesn't look like it!
Had a bit of a slump during the latter half of last week, but I am back! Looks like I will be putting off my painting-a-day marathon until next week, though. I worked primarily on the water today, although I also toned down some of the bright leaves. Another hour and a half. This piece has now passed 15 hours.
2.1 more hours today. This is the first time I've broken the two hour mark with this piece, I believe. The light section is a little overexposed, but ah well.
I spent roughly an hour and 20 minutes on this today, focusing exclusively on the leaves to the right. I like where they're going. The leaves (on both sides) still need some cleanup, and then I need to finish the water...at which point I think I will finally be done with this one. I think that next week, after I finish this thing, I need to have a painting-a-day-athon. (Please disregard that complete and utter mangling of the English language.) I keep getting so anxious about screwing this painting up that I stop after an hour of work or so, and taking more than 10 days to finish what will probably be a 15-20 hour painting is just absurd. Taking more than 5 days is absurd, let alone 10 or 15.
Or, rather, it's absurd because I'm not working on much else. I need to figure out a way to easily switch between paintings so I can work on more than one at a time. The answer might be another easel, but I don't have the space. Having multiple boards for each painting could work, but it's risky to leave them on the floor off the easel. I could bump into them, they could fall, the pastel dust from whatever painting I'm working on could sift down onto it and muddy it up, etc., etc. Maybe what I need is a nice high shelf with a lip that I could place the paintings on, lined with glassine paper so I don't get any dust on the wall.
In any case, the bottom line is that I am frustrated with my low output. Whether I can figure out a way to do more than one major painting at a time is beside the point; even if I can work on more than one, I still run the risk of being too nervous to make bold decisions. Which is why I think a painting a day for a week would be very helpful. Single-day paintings give me more freedom to experiment -- I'm not as invested in them, and I tend to view mistakes as a learning experience more than a terrible tragedy.
So. This week, I will finish this painting. Next week, I will create a painting every day. They won't be as polished, but that's ok -- I just want to loosen up a little. Then I'll go back to working on larger pieces having learned something.
I decided to play today. It's wet and rainy, and as a result I'm actually wet my pastelbord (not a typo, that's actually the name of the surface I like to use) and put down a first layer. Those colors still shine through this "finished" painting in places. It's not actually finished, but I will probably not come back to this one. This took about two hours. It felt good to mess around and not worry about screwing up something. Indeed, maybe this would be a good candidate for putting out in the rain to see what happens...
The leaves continue to frustrate me. I decided to break away from the colors I've been using for the tree in the foreground, and it's finally starting to look like a cohesive tree. I think. At the very least, it no longer merges with the background, but it definitely needs more work. Another hour and 20 minutes today...not as much time as I'd like, but as much time as I am able to give it right now. I really need to work on something else and come back to this with fresh eyes. Fortunately, I have my figure painting class tonight, so that will provide a brief respite.
Not sure whether I'll be able to muster the right mood to work on this if it is indeed cloudy and rainy for the next few days. If I don't work on this piece, I will work on the comic.
Another hour and 20 minutes today. Yesterday I decided to do some figure sketching instead of this piece -- I needed a break. Indeed, I think I really need to figure out a dual-easel setup so I can work on two pieces simultaneously. Anyway, I worked on the leaves, and I continue to be frustrated by them. If I'm going to actually finish this piece this week, I need to learn how to leave (ahahaha) well enough alone...
Another 1.5 hours today. Continued work on the foreground, and started to modify the water a little bit. Pale pastel dust from the bright water keeps muddying up the darks in the foreground -- hopefully I won't need to modify that section too much more. My goal is to finish this painting before the end of the week. I think I need to lighten the shadows in the water under the rock in the foreground -- it draws way too much attention to itself.
Finally laid down more pastel in the foreground. It's starting to come together. I worked for 1.2 hours today.
Did more work on the leaves. I think I need to focus on something else for a little bit; I am growing dissatisfied with how the leaves are turning out, so it's probably best to let them sit for a day or two and then come back to them with a fresh eye. Otherwise, I run the risk of overworking them. Another hour and 15 minutes today.
