Today I worked on revising some pastel pieces I'd thought were finished.  Last night Chris and I started the fairly arduous process of framing 7 pieces for the show I have coming up in October.  I cut the mats while he cut the wood for the frames.  I'm so blessed to have such a talented, supportive husband to make beautiful frames for me.

Because I had good luck using spray fixative on my self portrait, I decided I was going to fix the pieces I was getting ready to frame because I am tired of having pastel dust fall onto pristine white mats, causing me to have to re-mat the pieces.  It's a pain in the butt!  So today I got out my wonderful Schminke fixative and went at it.  3 of the pieces weren't too bad - they seem to have taken off a layer of pastel, but it was manageable - but the 4th one was horrible!  It went from glowing to dark and dull.  I was so disappointed.  there was no way I could frame it like that, so I brought it into the studio and started working on it again.  The picture on the left is how it looked pre-fixative.  The one on the right is after I repaired/re-did the fixed piece.  The good news is that I think it's a stronger piece now.  The bad news is that I can't fix it for fear of messing it up again!  Oh well - what's a bit of pastel dust on a mat?

After I finished repairing Valley's Folds, I decided to re-do another piece, American Beauty.  I had been pleased with it when I finished it, but the more it hung around the studio, the less I liked it.  The colors were too yellow and fake.    I decided to try to make the colors more realistic, or at least more muted.  I began by changing the background.  That made a huge different right away.  Then I put more pink into the flesh, and green and blue into the shadows.  That made is look richer and more realistic immediately.  I love how powerfully complementary colors create shadows and make the form have the illusion of going back.

The third piece I did some work on today was Just Thinkin'.  That one has an interesting history - the model at first was almost defiant in wanting me to paint her whole body, including her face.  After our session, though, and after thinking about it for a while, she realized she wasn't comfortable with it after all.  I think she was concerned that people she knew might see the pictures and use them against her. 

She's not the only model who has had that concern.  Another woman was worried her employer might see her picture and fire her simply because "that's not the kind of woman they want working for them, and they don't need an excuse to fire someone."  I hate it that women need to have those concerns.  I understand them, and I honor them completely.  I just hate that it could be the case. 

Anyway, the model for Just Thinkin' saw the piece I had done of her and asked me to remove the tattoo on her shoulder so she wouldn't be recognizable even by that in case someone should see it.  So the other revision I did today was to "erase" the tattoo - much easier done in pastels than in real flesh!

I think it's really interesting all the feelings we women go through when deciding whether to model, how much to show, whether to show our faces or not, who can see the pictures, etc., etc.  I've had those feelings myself when thinking about my self-portrait, so I completely understand. 

This evening I had the pleasure of teaching intermediate pastels in the studio.  I love teaching!  It's so exciting to see people come into their own as artists and to see them develop the awareness that they, too, can draw well!  It's exhilarating!

Two new pieces

Today was very productive in the studio even though I wasted a lot of time too.  Sometimes I just can't help that.  I got up early this morning and took my car to the mechanics then walked home from there by 7:45.  Very unusual behavior for me to be up and at 'em so early!  I came home and went straight to the studio where I began working on a piece I had gridded the other day.  I'm calling it "Just thinkin'".  In reality there is almost no distinction between her back and the background.  It's a bit more distinct in this picture than in the actually drawing.  I enjoyed creating this piece because of the brilliant oranges and the absolute white - which of course has lots of colors in it actually.  It was also fun to draw her hair which has 15-20 different colors in it.  I loe doing hair!  It's my most fun thing to draw.  The trick is to put every color into it that is in the painting already.  It adds wonderful complexity and interest and depth to it and helps it capture the highlights and light hitting it really well.  I do the same thing with pubic hair.  There are always tons of colors in it as well.

The other picture I worked on today is called Tummy Tuck II.  It's of the same woman as I drew earlier, but this time she's standing up.  The first picture is the preliminary sketch.  A few people saw it and suggested I leave it as it because they liked the feel of the skin.  I decided to go back into it and refine it though because I felt I could retain the feel of the skin but make the picture more interesting overall.  Here's the final.  I think I made the right choice to go back into it.  I love the depth of the scar and the belly button (which is actually also a scar on the mend.  With a tummy tuck operation, they create a new belly button to replace the old one which gets removed.) 

I seem to be drawing a lot of scars lately.  Several years ago, I did an entire series entitled Scar Series which was made up for large scale pastel drawings of people's scars.  I have written about them on this blog before, so if you're interested in learning more, you can check it out.  I don't think I'm fascinated by scars again, in particular, but I do seem to suddenly have models with some impressive ones!  They've fun to draw/paint because of the dimensionality of them and the irregularities.  They bring me a whole new challenge.  What I also really like, but which I haven't talked about so much here, is the stories that go with each scar.  Of course each of these women has a wonderful, rich, compelling story to go with her scar.  Hopefully the models will write up their stories one day and I can include them here.  I would love that!