I thought I would try to do some abstracts with my pastels. I decided to just play around, so used some Colourfix coated paper. I used a dark brown grey colored paper, and decided to put some gouache on it to tone it further. Then to try to have an interesting palette, I used a split complimentary palette.
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| Colourfix paper with gouache to tone |
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| Pastel choices |
For a composition, I decided to take one of my landscape photos and try to use it just for the shape of the design. I was hoping to move it into an abstract completely away from the landscape. You can see the photo in the upper left corner of the picture below. I then did a thumbnail sketch (upper right -below).
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| first pass with pastels |
Hmmm. You can see that it never moved into an abstract. I then decided I didn't like the portrait shape layout of the painting as there wasn't enough interest in the lower portion of the painting. So because I was using a paper support instead of canvas, it was easy enough to cut the painting into the shape that I liked better.
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| Finished painting |
Then I had the lower hunk of the paper leftover:
I played around with it a bit further:
And this is what I ended up with:
As I have said in the past, sanded pastel papers are not my favorite choice. Way too much dust and hard for me to control. I really don't know why I don't use my favorite, even if I just plan on playing.
Tomorrow is to be a rainy day, so I think I will get the oils and palette knife back out and see if I have better luck. I received some sample paints in the mail this week, and will see what I can do with those.
I played around with it a bit further:
And this is what I ended up with:
As I have said in the past, sanded pastel papers are not my favorite choice. Way too much dust and hard for me to control. I really don't know why I don't use my favorite, even if I just plan on playing. 
