25 Paintings Challenge - Day 4 - October 30, 2014

"A Walk by the River" Final - Pastel - 9x12 - October 2014
Vogel State Park

Day 4  - 25 Paintings Challenge - Today I reworked "A Walk by the River".    I loved this scene at Vogel State Park.   So quiet and peaceful.   At first I ended up with a darker painting with dark tree trunks and a hard shore line, not enough sky.    Karen Margulis did a blog yesterday on creating lyrical trees.   The technique of going lighter on trunk and using the sharp edge and letting the pastel lightly touch the paper.    I reworked several things and it definitely helped this painting but I ended up with to much pastel on the painting and some of the corrections were difficult to achieve.    The good thing is I learned some more things.    Funny things that you already know but seem to forget when the pastel gets in your hand.

 

Lesson for the Day - Less is always more.    I put entirely to much pastel and hard strokes in a painting.   It really makes it difficult to rework sections of the painting.   I need to focus more on the right choices of color pallete before!!! I start.    I used the pastels I had handy and never got the right color for water and sky.   I did a thumbnail sketch before I did the painting.   Unfortunately when I finished the first draft and was not happy with it, I noticed that I had gotten away from the shapes and lights and darks of my thumbnail.    I need to depend on the thumbnail sketch until the bitter end - then check out the reference photo for the final icing on the painting.   I have a busy day ahead and am giving myself permission to call it a day.   So far 4 days and 3 painting.    Definitely on the right track.  I'm thinking of joining the local Camera Club.   A good chance to get in field trips for photos that I might not explore on my own.