Pastel in Progress

I've been painting a series of pieces of Smith Bybee Lakes in Portland, OR. It's a wildlife preserve very close to the city. It's a beautiful refuge year round. The place just seems to draw me again and again. A sacred place as Joseph Campbell said "...your sacred place is the place you find yourself again and again."

I thought I'd post one of the images with shots in progress. It was done on a large sheet of elephant colored Art Spectrum/Colorfix paper. I planned for two pieces on the one sheet. I started my sketch with a spruce blue Nu-pastel just to get some composition and a little value going.

Next, I started to block in some color ideas. I usually start a with a little brighter, more intense color with the intention of settling it down towards the end. I also use a pretty light touch at this point.

Here, I've put some meat on the bone, so to speak and thought a little about the what the final color story will be. I try to let this evolve on it's own a bit during the progress of the piece. It's part intuition, part knowing where I want to go and part letting the painting take me.

This is just a little more refined with a few details. I've kept the foreground simple by using a gradation and building a little bit of texture there. All the focus, detail, strong value differences are on the central area of interest or focal point in the piece.