Finishing 'Shasta Days'

Shasta Days

Pastel painting, 9 x 12 on Art Spectrum Colourfix, $90 unframed

With more photos showing up for inspiration, I have to get in-process paintings off the easel, so this morning I was determined to finish this. I started by adding some light and dark gray to define petals and add more shadowing, but I mostly used a tortillon to smooth the edges of each petal. It was a lot of intricate work.

Sometimes I angle whatever tool I’m using too much and my middle fingernail scratches on the paper. Oops. I readjust. Then I took the little triangular sponge tool and worked the background in around some of the petals which helped sharpen the outer petal lines more. But that goes against all I ever heard about painting in that you do the background first, then layer on the rest working closer to the viewer.

Another issue is the pastel doesn’t always cover the original sketched pencil lines of the petals. No matter how many layers I added, some of the lines show.

In the end, I used bright white to highlight petals and create curves to the petals. I finally signed it. I’m happy.