From January 19, 2012
Ballerina Tulip, an oil pastel on 8x10 navy Canson Mi-Tientes Touch.
1. After a quick sketch of the petals in white Conte pencil, I began blocking in hues.
2. Here, I've added this tulip's stem and one for its taller neighbor as well filling up the rest of the petals.
3. I was convinced I needed to do something more interesting with the background than the the original paper blue, so I went a little nuts with the tints of the colors used in the composition thus far. After I was finished with this part, I decided, no, no, no, this is too busy and too complex.
4. I pulled out my Turpenoid and a brush, to gently smoosh (yes, that is the technical term) the colors together. Needless to say, I still was not pleased with the background.
5. Here I opted to darken the shadows , refine some of the contours, and pull the Turpenoid out again to meld the background. My reference photo has a poorly lit white wall behind it, and ultimately this mixture well represents the value of the wall. Unfortunately, it feels way to flat for me. After all, it's a bit of pebbly, irregular surface.
6. For this final adjustment to the background, I used light, irregular scribbles, again with the tints of hues used in this composition plus white. It almost carries the glowing characteristics of a frosted glass window. It was fun to pull out the oil pastels as a slight change of pace for the day after several weeks of working solely with soft pastels. I am a little rusty with the oil pastels, but I like their feel and forgiveness.
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