Blue Poppy

"Blue Poppy" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting

"Blue Poppy" is a soft pastel painting done with pastels and pencils on Bristol board. I did a little experiment with this painting. I've been having some trouble blending pastels on the Bristol board, particually with the backgrounds, so I decided to try applying some Colourfix primer to the background to see if that would help. I drew the flower first, and then went around it with the primer. It actually worked pretty well. I was able to apply more pastel and it was easier to blend. So that worked well, however, this paper presents a whole new problem for me... It doesn't scan or photograph very well. In fact scanning a painting done on this paper is a lost cause. I photographed "Blue Poppy" and tried to correct the color as much as possible.

So anyway, I don't know how much more I will be using Bristol board in the future. I was playing around with some different papers that I have yesterday and I just may have found a winner! I've had it for months and never even tried it. I'm going to play around with it a little more before I reveal which paper it is :).

I really enjoyed painting this poppy. This painting is very sweet. I don't think I've ever used that word to describe a painting before, but the colors are so nice together (the greens and blues). It's so much prettier in person!!

Have a lovely afternoon! :)

Poppy

"Poppy" 5 by 7 Pastel Painting

I completed another painting today, and I thought you might like to see my process and also my little painting area.

When I paint small (which is almost all the time) I just sit at my desk. When I paint larger, I like to use my easel, especially when I’m painting water and skies. I have my pastel pencils off to the right and a small amount of pastel sticks just in case. I also keep my sharpener and baby wipes handy.
I like to stabilize my painting surface, so that it’s not moving all around. I painted on a piece of Bristol board today, and I just used a little piece of tape to stick it down to my clipboard. I fold up a kitchen towel and place it underneath the clip board near the top. This puts my surface at a comfortable angle for painting. You can barely see the drawing here, but I complete my drawing before I adhere the paper to the board.
When I’m painting realistically, I like to outline my main subjects first. I outlined my poppy in green, which will be my background color. I use a very sharp pastel pencil to do this. If I don't outline my subject first, when I take a pastel stick and try to cover the background, I will lose the pencils lines.Then I like to complete the background. Sometimes I use pastel pencils for this and sometimes I use pastel sticks. It just depends on how much paper I have to cover. I had a difficult time with the background for this one because I was using Bristol board again, and you cannot apply as many layers of pastel as I like to. Next, I outlined my poppy to maintain the outline and began painting it piece by piece.
I like to work in one direction and not jump around when working on a piece like this.
Almost done with the petals.
Once I’ve “finished,” or covered all areas of the paper, I will take a little break. When I go back to it, I add highlights and darken darks, and sometimes rework the background if needed.
And the finished product.

This is only the 2nd time I've used Bristol board, and I'm definitley not used to it. I really want it to work for me, so I'm going to keep playing around with it.

I have to thank Pat from Back Porch Musings for allowing me to use her beautiful photograph. Thanks Pat!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!