Istrian Vineyard

Soft pastel 24x19 cm
I took a beautiful photo of this vineyard on my last trip to Istria in early November.

Mljet

Soft pastel 65x40 cm on indigo blue Canson MT Touch paper

The island of Mljet is one of the most beautiful and most forested islands in the Adriatic and one of the most beautiful pearls of the Mediterranean.
Mljet National Park makes up most of the island, and there are several villages, two salt water lakes and a Benedictine monastery on the tiny little island.

Stone Bridge

Soft pastel 30x22cm (12x9") on Canson MT Touch

This is the first time I experimented with the alcohol on Canson MT Touch. The alcohol on a brush was used to create the underpainting, after the initial tonal sketch. The original color of the paper was maroon, but it was completely gone after the alcohol application. I abandoned this paper after a few initial tries, didn't like the texture and how it grabs pastels, but after this I changed my mind and will use more of it in the future.
The detail below is by far my favorite and I tired to make it the focal area.
The reference photo is from the WetCanvas RIL, by blScott.
This is the Stone bridge in Beacon Hill Park, Greater Victoria, BC

Swing to the Red

Soft pastels 15x15 cm (6x6") on La Carte paper.
This is a small painting for the Casey Klahn's Paint the Barn in Winter Challenge.
This is a second try, the first one was a mess :)

Monet value study

Soft pastel 20x15 cm (8x6") on recycled Fisher400 paper.

I picked the field by Monet to work on. It is a clean example of the values and I love to copy masters
I made the 3-value study but was no sure where to put the distant hills, in the dark or mid value. Finally I went with the dark and later I toned it down.

The reference was greyed down before I picked the colors to do the value masses:

 The figure is a bit strange on the original. It looks like the guy is taking a photo of the fields with his phone .
I tried to point his head towards the middle of the painting. But it is always a challenge to make such a small figure. The color palette choice I made should be more appropriate for this time of year.


Here is the "Poppy fields" by master Claude Oscar Monet. Respect.

How to use Šljivovica in the pastel painting?

"I saw a fork in a tree"

 Soft pastel on Wallis 20x15 cm (6x8")

After the initial drawing I wanted to drop this painting, but forced myself to continue and at the end I was really happy with it. The reason is probably the new process that I just invented. I ran out of alcohol which I sometimes use to make the under-painting, and came up with an idea to use Šljivovica (plum brandy) instead. I heavily applied it and enjoyed the smell while it was drying :).
Some pastel particles got drunk, started to float around and made some beautiful effects which I used to my advantage. Or it was my eyes that were floating? Can't remember well :)


This study is done for the WetCanvas WDE thread. The reference is this thread here.