Day 21: Badger Prairie

from January 21, 2012

Badger Prairie, a soft pastel on 6x10 white Wallis professional sanded paper.

1. I used the side of two sticks to sketch in the undulating horizon and the ominous sky, then used the brush end of a pastel blending tool to push the color into the tooth of the paper.

2. I wanted this to have a painterly feel, so my "brush" strokes, as applied with stick pastels had to be inconsistent and applied in a variety of stick positions...side, end, spattering, on-paper blending, tick marks, and a broad swath or two. The sky is actually more violet (see part 3 and 4 photos for images closer to reality.

3. I continued working the strokes in the sky, trying to get the clouds to swirl and hold their masses, lights and darks, and ominous qualities.

4. Here I've applied just a few corrections to the composition, add detailed foreground marks, clean up around the road, and a little more play in the sky. All-in-all, this is representative of my mood for the evening...a little dark with some light on the horizon.