Boys Creek 11 by 14 inch Pastel painting by Sarah Belle Smith
My daughter Miriam was out at our creek, and took a wonderful photo of a place my kids all call “the boys creek”. I was going to paint it in oil, but my easel already had one unfinished oil painting on it, so I thought I would try it in Pastel. Here with out much ado, is the process….
Roughing in some shapes with hard pastels on white pastel gator board.Putting in some more darks, still with hard pastels.I grabbed my super soft pastels by mistake, and was having fun just putting color on… usually I save the softest pastels for last…. They go on like butter, and cost a fortune,Just playing around with color and shape… now with semi-soft pastels. My husband took one look and asked why there was a volcano in the middle? Another eye looking at it is always good.I am afraid of blending, but this needed some, so I sprayed some spots with Rubbing alcohol, and did some spot blends. The other thing I am afraid of is BLACK. I put the darkest blues, greens and browns, in but it needed something darker under the bank. So took a deep breathe, and put some black in.I thought I was done here, but my daughter MIriam said, it needed more detail. I hate putting detail in, but I thought I could add some, with my conte pastel pencils.Done. But I think, I might be able to do better with oil paint. This is for sale in the gallery shop page.Original photo.
