Lucky Number 7

I'm going to apologize in advance, there's going to be a lot of art lingo in the post (so Dad you can skip to the bottom of the post to see the finished painting ;-) )  Last week's project started as a simple experiment in making my own sanded pastel paper. The good stuff is not cheap, and my beloved wallis paper is sold out everywhere, even the interwebs. ( I didn't even know the interwebs sold out of things?? Sigh...) Anyway that paper is like $8 a sheet on sale.  I recently saw a video on you tube by Karen Margulis about making your own sanded pastel paper using watercolor paper and clear gesso.  It sounded easy enough so I thought it was worth a shot.  Well, it was sort of a bust.  I am still working on it and it did produce some interesting results but just wasn't giving me what I was looking for.  Maybe more coats of gesso would be helpful? I tried this method on a couple of different surfaces and got interesting results.  

Anyway, back on topic.  So after finishing a painting of a park scene on crappy paper with gesso as an experiment, I decided I really liked the composition and wanted to do the painting over on good paper.  Luckily I had some uart 600 handy (my new go-to).  The painting turned out far better the second go around.  This paper just grips the pastel stick so well and makes it easy to paint rich bold colors.  I liked the second painting better than the first, but something was still not right.  I noodled on it for a few days and looked at some of my favorite paintings trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.  Value patterns right? Check.  Simplified composition? Pretty much. Color harmony? Ouch.  I noted more than once than the color schemes being implemented by my favorite artists were far more simple that what I was doing.  I noticed over and over again that there were specifically 7 different pastel sticks being used and that was it. Even paintings that were portraits. Hmmm... Was I onto something with this? I went down to my easel and investigated.  I used 19 different sticks in my park painting the second go around.  NINETEEN. 

So I started this painting for the third time hoping to see a more professional looking painting. It's funny, the one color I omitted I found indispensable in painting 2- a deep dark green.  I relied instead on a cool blue gray to deepen the mid tone warm green I was using. I like it! And I think it works with less detail in the composition too.  I think number 3 is a winner.  And it is also for sale on my etsy store.

Here are the 3 versions with commentary:

#1- cheap drawing pap covered in gesso with no underpainting.  This was definitely a warm up exercise.  There is no saving the cheap paper. It is frustrating and was a constant fight to layer colors.  Not to mention it eats my expensive pastels.  So it isn't really a money saver after all in my opinion.

#2- much better. The colors layer and blend so nicely on this paper. Uart 600. But the periwinkle blue color in the middle of the painting is distracting. And the foliage is too fussy.  Ahhhh keep trying...

#3 I think this turned out better.  I am pleased with the simplified trees. And the bridge is definitely the best of the 3 paintings. I struggled getting the figures in with such a simple palette (I got it down to 9 sticks).   It works better I think. For those that are curious the painting is of a city park in Budapest.