Day 22: Footprints

from January 22, 2012

Footprints, a soft pastel on 9x12 buttercup PastelMat.

1. After a quick sketch of the composition in white Conte pencil, I began blocking in the piece with the same palette used in yesterday's composition--with the exception of the addition of two blues for the clear skies I saw in yesterday's snowshoe adventure. The vantage point is different, but the water tower at Badger Prairie Park in Verona still plays a prominent role in the horizon.

2. The snows are deep enough to cover the grassy areas and the bike trails, but not the longer prairie grasses and leftovers from the summer's foliage. I intentionally left a few bare spots in the leaves of the tree for the leaves that are catching the most sun of the day.

3. At this point, I began concentrating on the snow in the foreground, including the wavy and tiny wind sculptures.

4. Each time I sprayed the snowy areas with SpectraFix, I wanted the spatter pattern to be retained. To accomplish something similar, I pulled out a cotton swab and daubed it with some of the older, gunkier fixative that I retained for a future project. Little did I know, that "player-to-be-named-later" project was today's. No time like the present, I believe, to try something new!

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.