Autumn’s Rocky River; a partial story of a pastel painting

My friend, Paulette Normand-Paquin, gave me permission to use one of her photos for a painting reference. There are some of my favorite elements in this scene: dramatic sky, mountains, autumn colors in the trees, water, and rocks. But, oh, so many rocks! Could I pull this off?

Initial thumbnail sketch, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 

I did an initial thumbnail sketch using vine charcoal (not actually thumbnail size but done on 5 ½ x 8 ½ sketch pad paper.) Then I drew out the outlines of shapes on 10 ½ x 14 ¾ BFK Rives paper and added values, also with vine charcoal. I put in the first round of color using pan pastels as an underpainting during the next stint in the studio.

The next times in the studio had me adding more and more color. I decided early on there was no way I could do all the rocks as shown in the photo. As I began getting into more details, I realized I had trouble being able to see some of the actual features, distinguishing the foliage of one tree from the next.

Adding color and getting in the first rocks

I use a lot of soft pastels, so when I’m trying to get finer lines, there’s the issue of not always being able to get the edge of the pastel to mark exactly where I want, which means having to wipe off or erase. And, too, I swear I have over 50 shades of green and never seem to have the exact color to match the photo. Then again, I’m not trying to be a photo realist, so as long as the colors look real, that’s all that really matters.

The rocks took a long time and I spent days trying to get them to look right. Weeks went by as I pecked at the painting. I’d take progress photos after almost every working and looking at that photo on the computer would give me ideas on what needed more work.

I wanted to finish this by the end of December, but I just kept finding aspects to fix. The water was another challenge. How do I make it look natural around the rocks? How do I get the right shading, ripples, movement? Another bit of challenge is getting the coloring of the progress photo to match the actual painting. As I’m also a photographer, I keep trying to make the photo be a good, vibrant photo instead of allowing it to be more like the painting.

Getting there

The painting dragged into the new year, and I was getting frustrated. I kept at periodically between all the other projects I was working on. I finally called it finished and signed it, but something kept bothering me about it.

After adding some warmth to the rocks

Then, after one of our Wonderful Waffle Wednesday breakfasts, Nan McCarthy, my very good friend and fellow artist, gave me some great suggestions. It’s funny, sometimes I get blind and can’t figure out what’s needed, yet the moment someone else points it out, I see it.

So, now, I’ll be back at doing finishing touches. I keep telling myself I want to finish paintings sooner – the longer it takes me, the more I tend to overwork the painting. Plus, after too much time, I get bored with it and want to move on to something else. But sometimes, I just can’t let things be and keep picking at it.