Niecy

As usual, I put down a pencil outline, filled it with spots from the pastels, trying to have at least three colours everywhere and then smoothed it all our using my fingers in the bigger shapes and tools in the smaller shapes.  I started in the darkest areas with sap green because it’s one of the darkest colours and it’s not brown or black, which are a bit too plain for my style.  After that, I used different greens in different value shapes and the whole green colour scheme just stuck, even when I threw lots of other colours into the mix.  Because this was all about having fun. I didn’t bother leaving white highlights: any highlights would have to be added in oil pastel.  The finger smoothing is not only great fun but also adds dimension to the painting, more dimension than I seem to be able to add in other media.

In some places, the edges were fuzzy. I quite liked this; it added some energy and I deliberately fuzzed some edges in other places.  There were also a few messy fingerprints in the background.  After thinking for a while, I took the brave step of covering the whole background with fingerprints and blurring them in places.  At first I prepared my fingertips by dabbing them into the colour that was already on the paper; later, when there wasn’t enough surplus colour left, I just rolled the pastels around between my fingertips.  The final result is that the background looks like a dirty wall in an abandoned building.

I’ve ended up with a decent painting, which is going up for sale.  The best things about it are the sculpted body lines; its weak point is the fingers behind the head but they’re not a disaster.  The fingerprints background will no doubt be divisive but I quite like it.

This is my first oil pastel work since early July, before my birthday and before coloured pencils, dash & splash and the supergranulating Schmincke watercolours.  It’s interesting to see how my style’s changed in that time.  I noticed two changes.  One was that I was really free and easy with the colours; the other was that I was working much more quickly than before.  Maybe it’s because today was a day for fun and things will change back when I’m painting landscapes or portraits with the pastels.