18″x24″, ink on gessoed canvas board
October rolled around, and I set down my oil pastels and picked up my Indigraph fountain pen. But first, I put on two more coats of gesso on this canvas board and a generous amount of ink that created a very active background. I decided to use reds and yellows with a hint of blue to create an analogous color scheme of orange, plum, and red. I’m a little intimidated by the size, but so far, this has been super fun.
16″x12″, India ink on Khadi paper
I’ve tried to capture these grain silos before, and I’m happy enough with this effort,
8″x10″, oil pastel on prepped wooden panel
A very bright sky and foreground and some interesting, semi-circular barns. I prepped the wooden panel with two coats of Gac 100 by Golden as a sealant and then two coats of gesso, leaving brushmarks. The buildings created the composition, so I felt like all I had to do was capture it.
This large oil pastel is something different. I like to revisit my past obsessions and give them another try, and my oil pastel/crayon phase left me with plenty of supplies. I used a variety of Caran D’ache and Sennelier oil pastels as well as some ink on the background to start. This time, I used a big canvas board which leaves a textured, gridded effect. One problem I found is that it’s very hard to photograph as the lined pattern kept coming through.I had to soften and enhance the photo, so it’s more vivid here than in reality.
I really like oil pastel as it combines drawing and painting, plus it’s so forgivable. You can go over mistakes, take out or add color, blur, cut in lines, etc.It forces me to skip detail and rely more on impression.
I’m trying to figure out how to push past my cliched attempts at landscape, so that’s my next big challenge.
16″ x 20″, ink background and oil pastel on gessoed canvas board