Pastel Saves Painting, But Then...

AND THEN JUST A BIT MORE WATERCOLOR THIS MORNING: (I hadn't done enough squiggles, smears and run-ins). Hopefully my obsession with this will end here--but perhaps one small dot of red to the left of the vase in the yellow/white section to break it up? Yep. Then I'd better get dressed and go to lunch.




AFTER PASTELS WERE APPLIED:



BEFORE PASTELS WERE APPLIED:



I handed Honey my fourth floor plan for our client and said, "Get it out of here." Then I retreated to the studio to listen to The Talk and clean up the mess I had LEFT on the bar, my "watercolor/colored pencil/pastel station"--unless it's the holidays, then it's my wrapping station.

I try to be neat when I'm in this part of the basement. It's finished nicely--carpet, TV, cushy furniture, etc. but those daisies had made me a bit wild. As I was wiping up splatters and straightening piles, I pulled out the painting again and took another look. I decided to warm up with pastels before going into the painting room to work on Fall Woods.

And there went Fall Woods and the afternoon. I think it went well. I took what was wrong with the Gerber Daisies--wild strokes,strong contrasts and did more of it. I left the actual colors behind and put in what I left worked. I smeared, I wrote, I lightened, I intensified. The painting improved. Overworked is overworked. So I over worked it again, sprayed it with fixitive and walked away a satisfied bulldog. Merging the daisies with the floral painting backdrop did the trick.