Pinterest

Follow Me on Pinterest

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Dusk From San Antonio Road

click on painting to enlarge
This pastel painting is done on La Carte Pastel Card.  The painting is done with soft pastels.  This painting measures 23"X29".As I prepare to become a serious plein air painter I have decided to develop my skills in quickly rendering my subject.  I am tempted to call this a sketch rather than a painting based on the amount of time I am putting into the painting.  I started this painting at 5:30 pm and finished at 6:50pm.  I have the ability to chase the light with pastels because of their amazing abiltiy to cover the surface quickly.  At the end of this painting I gave final touches all over the surface to reflect the quickly fading light.  To develop this skill I am putting myself on some kind of internal timer.  I am not timing the painting but I know when to stop.  Most quick draw competitions seem to run from 1.5 to 3 hours long.  I have decided to not sacrafice the size of my paintings in these practices; instead I am looking to increase the quality of my paintings within this time limit.  I find myself intentionally going out to paint when there is only a little amount of time left in the day.  Once I feel I have accomplished this goal I will start my next focus.  The next focus will be painting even larger plein air paintings with several return visits.  That will present a whole new series of challenges.

No comments: