Timed Study 1 - Rain Coming

Timed Study 1 - Rain Coming, pastel 6x9

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of timed studies in Pastel.  The plan is to limit the time for painting based on the size of the paper - 4 minutes PLUS 1 minute for each 3 square inches of the paper.  In this case the paper is 6x9 - 54 square inches; 54 / 3 = 18. So 4 + 18 = 22 minutes.  It may sound complex, but it works for me.  I also limited my  palette to 16 pieces of pastel, an arbitrary number that seems to be enough to do the work but small enough to make me think about my choices.

I started the project with a simple line drawing on paper of the subject. I am careful at this stage to make sure the proportions of the drawing are the same as the pastel paper I plan to use.

The next step is to draw the basic image/design on the pastel paper with vine charcoal.  I like vine charcoal because it permits me to make corrections and/or erase any part of the image easily with a gum eraser.  

Once I'm, satisfied with the placement of objects and layout, I reduce the charcoal drawing to a "ghost" with the eraser.  I don't want any of the black charcoal bleeding through into the image.

With a concept in mind, I then select my palette keeping in mind the self-imposed limit of 16 pieces.  I make my selections based on color values within families keeping in mind whether the result I want is warm or cool.  For this painting, I selected 2 shades of blue,  3 shades of purple/mauve (warm), 3 shades of green (warm), 3 shades of yellow, 2 orange/pink shades, and one piece of white (warm) which leans toward yellow.

With the paper and pastels in place, I set my timer to 22 minutes and start working.  When the timer goes off, I quit.

As a last caveat, if the timed work has promise, I reserve the right to go back later and "finish" the painting.  I haven't yet decided what to do with this painting.