Pastel - Apples with Cinnamon Tea

Yesterday, I took another class at Sunbear Studio in pastels. Our work for the day was to learn about different color relationships using our color wheel. For the morning session, we were to take our reference photo and turn it upside down while we worked. This was so that we saw shapes instead of objects. I have worked this way before, and do like to work this way. The other students were skeptical, but delighted when they saw their finished work right side up.

In the pastel below, I used a split complimentary color scheme. To add to the confusion, as an underpainting, I was to use the 'complimentary' - split complimentary of the original three colors... Yikes! It made my head hurt to work this way, but it was pretty fun. Love how it turned out in the end. It really seems to give the final painting alot of life.

I'm still working on this series in preparation for the art league exhibit in September where the theme is 'applesauce'. I plan on doing one more with a slightly different setup in oils before I decide which one to enter.

"Apples with Spice Tea" , 9 x12, soft pastel on UArt sanded paper.

In the version below, we were to take the painting we created in the morning, turn that upside down and use that instead of our photo to create a new painting in a different color scheme. I decided to use a analogous color scheme on the cool side of the color wheel. Underneath, I had to use the complimentary colors of what I wanted on each shape in the end. VERY confusing...
I did end up using a few colors that were not side by side on the color wheel, but I like how it turned out. I think these techniques are very useful and will try to use these again, especially in my pastel work.

"Analogous Apples", 11 x14, soft pastel on UArt sanded paper.