Day 31: Red Barn

January 31, 2012

Red Barn, a soft pastel on 9.5x9.5 slate gray PastelMat.

1. I scumbled in all of the primary shapes with NuPastels.

2. After switching out to the Great American pastel set, I built out the outbuildings, barn, house, and trees. I really like the sky at this point, and wish I had left it more like this. But NOOOO, sometimes I do not leave well-enough alone!

3. For the windows and doors on the barn and the house and the shading of the silos, I used subtle pastel pencil marks. I wanted to keep the corn field between the viewer and the horizon filled with a hint of the winds swirling around. I don't like the amount of turquoise that I used in the sky, so I'll be fixing that in the next step.

4. Here, I've brightened the sky, covering over most of the turquoise that was overwhelming the mood. I can't wait to go back and shoot photos of all of these pieces under optimum lighting conditions!

Day 23: Right Field

From January 23, 2012

Right Field, a soft pastel on 6x9 brick Colourfix sanded paper.

1. After working and reworking my white Conte pencil sketch of this composition, I blocked in colors. Initially, I really, really wanted to love this "as is" as an abstraction. I could do it for the left half with just the purple tree (it probably looks blue on your screen) or for just the right half. I think if I had more time on which to work and ponder, I might have been able to regroup overnight and figure out a way to leave this as an abstraction. I do think that I'll come back and do just that another day, after I've had time for iterative versions.

2. I began trying to extend the abstract plan to the trees by using just a few colors to create depth, and then trying to build something that would work as an overgrown shore line next to the meandering stream.

3. One of the main aspects of the composition for this piece was the foreshortened oval field and the concentric ovals contained within the stream edge in the foreground and the dense foliage in the background. I continued to build the shore structure and reflections in the water with colors to match.

4. At this point, I settled in to this piece not necessarily remaining as an abstraction. I did want to keep the very warm field colors, as this was summer in the South, where only a few patches of grass remained for the cow. The water is beginning to look like it flows, and little tick marks of bright green at the top of the composition give the impression of a canopy of leaves high above with part of a cast shadow affecting the colors in the midground.

5. I continued to refine and enhance my tic-style mark-making, with some rich green plants spilling over the shore line into the water and solidifying the background foliage. The composition and field structure ultimately took on the feeling of a baseball infield, and hence I named the piece Right Field.