untitled exercise, 2011
8 x 10 soft pastel on hardboard

So here I am on my continuing journey exploring soft pastels while I wait for my oils to dry. This time I took a hardboard, clay board, which I coated with Colorfix Primer to give it more tooth. This tree portrait is an exercise from a little book on pastel landscapes for beginners. I don't have a lot of pastels and I certainly didn't have all of the colors stated in the book, but I  tried it nevertheless. I'm nothing if not adventuresome, and I'm a perennial student. I love to learn new things.


On a side note: I've been watching a video by Richard McKinley called “Three Stages For Successful Pastel Paintings”. What an excellent video - I've actually gone ahead and ordered his other one called “Bold Under Paintings For Lively Pastel Landscapes” which I can't wait to receive.

I must say that my attempt at amalgamating what I had learned watching the video and what the little booklet was telling me is only somewhat successful. I'm particularly proud of the sky and the foreground lawn shape. My tree on the other hand is awful (the trunk insisted on growing with every stroke) but for a first try on a tiny board it's not too bad.

I think I’ll have to go much much larger with pastels. And I'm going to have to do lots of exercises while keeping Richard’s words in mind before I'll be satisfied - but you know what? Pastels are kind of exciting.

And I think I have, at long last, found the medium for my landscapes.  I have thousands of landscape photographs - approximately 21,000 (if I'm counting, and I am not kidding). I think I'll finally be able to put them to use.

Hmm, snow scene or cloudscape next?

Until next time, TTFN :-)