A True Horror-scope (horoscope) and Edges in Pastel Painting

Happy Birthday to Cole, our favorite grandson!

Cindy, wife, and Cole

This past Tuesday was a great pastel painting day.  It started off with our horror-scope.  Gene and I are both Virgos.  It makes us laugh at how our horoscope rarely applies to both of us except in a very general way.  Gene's sister Mercy is a Virgo, too, and we are all three very different.

Our horror-scope from the Austin American Statesman http://www.statesman.com/  for Tuesday, http://www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/horoscopes/horoscopes-by-holiday/mercury-trine-neptune-.html:

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You're not quite ready to show the world your work. You're just not sure about it yet. You're not convinced that it's up to your own taste level. So, hold it back, but do share something — your process or influences, for instance.

Appropriate for me as I was off to a painting class with Enid Wood.  http://www.enidwood.com/classes/

We painted with Enid's instruction about hard and soft edges.  I did a quick pastel on Mi Teintes paper and worked on my bluebonnet painting.  I did not take photos in the class and today it is cloudy to take my photos outside.  I like to take photos of pastels in direct sun.  I have very little correction to do in Photoshop or another digital program that way..  No sun today!  I had to do a bit of work on the computer to make the photos acceptable to my "eye".

The strong edges on the glass bring it forward and the indistinct edges on the lemon push it back and make it less important.  I only spent about 45 minutes on this so I could work on the bluebonnets.

Here is the painting cropped to 8 x 8 inches.  Not bad, could be called the Hour Glass.

This is the way the bluebonnets looked.   It is 11 x 14 inches on Pastelbord.  The painting at this stage is OK, the intensity and bright colors on the flowers is so even, that it makes them all the same importance.  I want the blueonnets in the upper right to be the stars of the show.

To accomplish this, there needs to be some sharper edges and darker dark passages around the main flowers.  The bottom flowers are too much the same intensity as the stars.   The shadows should be grayed down to make them less important.

This photo doesn't show the changes accurately (lack of sunshine to take the photo).  The flowers are now more intense in the upper right with more dark in the grass behind the main flowers than in the original photo.   I wiped the edges and made the white part of the lower bluebonnets more blue and less obvious.  The painting is getting more to my liking.  It still needs work.   I will let you know how it goes.

It was good to have Enid and the other artists look at the painting.  I look at paintings so long that I see what I want to see and not what is really there.  That is why it is good to get away from it for a while.   Fresh eyes help my progress.

Enid holds pastel classes on the second Tuesday of the month at the Bastrop Fine Art Gallery, 10:00 a.m - 12:00 noon.  I will teach the class on December 9 and February 10.  I will follow up with a blog about this and get the classes on my calendar and at the Gallery.  More info about Enid's classes on her website:  http://www.enidwood.com/classes/  Space is limited so let us know if you are interested.

December 9, Turning on the Light, Jo Castillo
January 13, Underpainting, Enid Wood
February 10, Thumbnails to Paintings, Jo Castillo
March 10, Underpainting (different), Enid Wood