After thinking it over, I decided to use the pastels to color in the mill. I wanted to have the depth of color in the foliage that I knew I could get with the pastels, especially with the size of this piece – 16″ x 12″. I felt in the mood for going back to my basics after the linocuts.
Preliminary color
I have laid the preliminary browns on the stones and the greens for the foliage. It lacks depth right now, but I will be adding that with some purples and reds as well as more of the earth tones. It is still on the dull side since I haven’t sprayed it yet. I am being cautious since on one of the more recent pastels, I overdid the fixative and it affected my photos. The pastels themselves looked okay but when I tried to take pictures the light must have refracted between layers and I could never capture the depth of color that was there. Most likely it will be finished by the weekend.
