For Saturday, I rested on Thursday. Because this past Saturday, the beach called me early in the day. The day’s pastel lesson was in Value study. Below image is off the internet. The gradations from black to white are called the “VALUE” scale in visual awareness. This is one of the most important lessons insetting up a painting visually
The Sennelier soft pastels with Mi-Tiente paper 9 x 12″ were my choice. Usually I use the workhorse NuPastels but because I was focusing on quick color value saturating the paper, the softer pastels suited. This went well. But I wasn’t done asking myself questions and the day was not over.
From the furthest east on land in South Florida, I traveled to the west; the Everglades. Going on a 4 mile hike with friends, I arrived early to draw.
My feet made 1.5 miles before complaining so I turned back and got 3 miles walked alone. The sounds at sunset in the Everglades are both warnings and treats. The huge splashes were the 15 ft gators entering the waters. By the time I heard the sound waves, those gators were deep in their dive. No need to fear but I still glanced just in case. Other sounds were chirpy and croaky sounds of bullfrogs, lizards of many varieties and insects.
I promised my feet some rest if we got to the airboat dock in time for sunset.
The bottom right brown specs is a submerged gator. It was about 8 ft long by eyeball guessing. When I started painting it, it chose to fit into the specs of seaweed and plant debris, just keeping its snout nose atop the water and then the first few bumps of its plated head and then water. There it stayed. I find that some alligators will not flee from me when I am settled. It doesn’t advance either or I’d be gone as fast as my complaining feet could sprint.
This pastel painting is roughly 6 x 6″ on UArt sanded pastel paper Grid level 320. This is not sand paper. This is art quality paper with a spray of specially treated sand. This type of surface grabs pastels and holds them in place. Smudging it is similar to being licked by a cat’s tongue. Using the Inscribe Pastels, I finally found a use for them! I can get very addicted to this paper cat tongue grabbing pastel pigment. It’s very akin to the type of color layout I love in oils without the time, drying time and chemical mess of oils.
I’ll lick my finger over the sanded tongue of Uart many times to come. It’s a good value.