Here I am, out of my comfort zone, painting birds and water instead of horses and dust. Keeps me on my toes I guess, and actually was more fun than I thought it would be. It's amazing how many colors are reflected in clear water!
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We are told to "get out of our comfort zone" so I definitely did here, but only out of necessity! I normally use a sanded pastel paper when painting landscapes and rodeo because it forces me to focus on the big shapes and not get too nit-picky about details. I did not have any Wallis paper on hand (which is an even textured sanded paper), so decided to try a different brand that I had bought a while back. After sketching in the main shapes I started in on the painting and was immediately put off by the very rough texture. I thought "I am never going to finish this at this rate" because I couldn't get the pastels to cover at all.
I kept at it and alternately kept thinking that I needed to start over on a more familiar surface. I was getting more and more frustrated when I happened to grab my kneaded eraser and decided to try scrubbing the pastel into the paper with the kneaded eraser. I liked the effect and continued on in that manner. Lay down some color and pretty much mixed it on the paper with a swipe of the eraser. It almost felt like painting oils with a brush and I really enjoyed the process. I'm sure I will try it again... when I remember what paper it was I was using!
