Magenta or Purple

Both colors are on my list of favorites and I guess one is a hot pink and the other is a deep violet. Anyway it is a joy to try to find the right one for my grisaille painting and at the same time try to learn this technique that has a new mystery everytime I have a session with Michael Newberry. It is so much more complicated to finding what color looks good next to another in pastel and how warm and cool colors will at the end either make or break your piece, depending on how you have chosen and placed them in it. I still have quite a bit to learn and I think only with practice, will the choices be made right.

My Little Corner

I thought I would post my painting in my studio and my set up, so the size of the painting could be appreciated. What was a large studio when planning our house, turned into a smaller one because I shared half of it with my husband as a TV room, so while he watches TV in the evening, I paint. If I didn't have so many plants maybe I would have more room to move around, but they make such a nice atmosphere.

Second Grisaille Update

I think this is very close to the end now and will be ready for color. This has been a very long process but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have not once felt frustrated with it, in spite of having some problems with small details and having to take steps back. I think these steps back have been a tremendous learning experience for me and as I went along I saw how my eye was learning to see things that weren't quite right and I was able to correct them. I am beginning to squint naturally now, something that at the beginning was very hard for me to remember and what an important tool it is, to really find the difference in values.

I have also been working on some pastel cloth studies as guides for the two colors that will be used in the cloth in this painting. I plan to post some of those is next few days and hope to post my color advances in this painting more often.