Pastel project - Iris

[sophiap]

Another finished pastel painting - this one of an iris from my garden.


Here's the initial sketch, blocking out where major areas of color will go. All this does is get me through the initial color lay-down. After that, I live and die by my reference photo. Please note that the paper is not white - some of it will end up showing through, so I want to be sure my paper works with the color scheme of the painting as a whole.


First color lay-down. This stage always feels delightfully kindergarteny.


Initial blending, getting ready to lay down additional colors.


Things are still very, very dark. One of the odd things about working with pastel is the whole working from dark to light aspect of it.


Getting close - I still need to goose up some detail and add more lights. And a lot more purple - this necessitated a trip to Art Mart to get new pastels (oh, the horror).


Finally, the finished product

Comments

[arliss]

The process is so cool! Thanks for providing those steps. And the finished picture is beautiful.

[sophiap]

Thank you! I think it's fun to show the 'how I got there' part of these paintings. Also, it's helpful for me to see what I did so I can pinpoint things I might do differently next time.

[jenlp]

Lovely!

[sophiap]

Thank you!