A work in progress - a break with tradition.

I though I had finished this pastel painting and photographed it, loaded to my PC and then sat and looked at it. No it wasn't what I had intended at all.

What is wrong? Well the clouds are not like clouds, they look more like misplaced foliage and in the original photograph there was a vaulted appearance to the sky, I need to darken the top corners of the painting.

If you want to see the original by Robin (waterlily on Redgage), please be my guest; just pop over to the image titled heavenly.

You will see that it is not quite the same effect, I will be working on this again and will repost when I have completed it to my satisfaction. Check back to see when it is complete.

More Zazzle products with the same pastel painting - Moonlight

I posted my new painting in the last post, called "moonlight" and showed it on a stretched canvas available from Zazzle. I have now put it on a few more products of which here is a small sample.

Moonlight and tree poster by artyfax
Browse other Moonlight Posters

Moonlight Birthday card by artyfax
Design unique personalized note cards from zazzle.com.

Moonlight and tree postcard by artyfax
View more Artyfax Postcards

Moonlight and tree pillow by artyfax
See more Pastel Pillows

I would usually not include so many examples of products but I am very pleased with this painting and have started designing many products using the image. You can of course see a much larger image of this painting on my flickr account.

Although it is typical of the way I use pastels to create texture in the painting, in the large image you can actually see the texture as the fixing agent has dried and shrunk if you look carefully. Almost like a crackle paint finish. This in itself is not typical and I put it down to the paticular ground I have used for this painting. I am not careful about the board that I use, often using any old card that happens my way. Sometimes these can be around for a very long time and I forget where they come from. Maybe this is not a good approach?

Texture in pastel paintings

I am writing an article on the way that I achieve texture in my pastel paintings. I have posted many of them here on my blog but do not often include images of work in progress. In the article there are at least two with more than four stages included and some with two stages. It should be available in the next few days on Squidoo. I will include a link to this as soon as it is complete. In fact it will be here but will not be available until it is published.

I work in layers so that I can work the colours of the layers against each other as I build up the painting. It is a process I found for myself whilst learning how to use pastels but it is probably not new or unique but does give excellent results. As I worked it out for myself I like to think of it as "mine" but don't bite my head off.

My work space at the art group

set up for pastel work

note the pastel sticks, I always work with a limited palette

This shows the work after two layers of pastel, note the texture

After red and purple and black colours added, the start of the detail layers

At this point all layers are fixed

The moon is painted 

The sillouette of the tree is painted (these last details are not fixed)

You will be able to read fuller details in the article on Squidoo, I hope you will find it interesting.

This painting is now available on Zazzle as a canvas print and will soon be available on posters and other products.

Moonlight Gallery Wrap Canvas by artyfax
View other Pastel Canvas Prints