Olly’s Moon

Let’s kick off the week with a pastel landscape, impress those LAOTY judges when they come calling. Last time I went for oil pastels, so today will be soft pastels. I based this one on a photo by old Christ’s boy Olly Crook. He took this one on holiday in either Spain or Portugal and called it Moon, so I’m calling it Olly’s Moon.

So how did I do this one? Well I put down a pencil outline first, then marked out the shapes by using pastels on their sides. Then had fun by adding more impressionistic colours, still using the pastels on their sides. Occasionally I would use the sharp edges of dark pastels to mark in the edges of important shapes. I blended colours using polystyrene chips. When my blended colours were where I wanted them to be, I added finishing touches: some extra layers using the sides of pastels but not blended in, some final edges and shadows with dark colours and a sprinkling of violet crumbs pressed in with a palette knife. And I thought I’d spray on a couple of layers of fixative for once, see how that worked. And that was me done.

While doing colours I had two objectives. One was to use warm colours to the left of the arch and cool ones to the right. The other was to let earthy, fleshy colours dominate the stonework with just hints of primaries and secondaries coming through. I think I achieved the warm/cool effect. Actually I know I achieved it. In spades. The difference between the two sides is huge. And as for the stony colours, no, this is full on impressionistic. But in both cases I think this is just my style coming through. In my LAOTY application I talked about how I overcompensated when I finally got my hands on warm, saturated yellows, oranges, purples, pinks. And that’s still coming through today. So at least that means there will be no surprises if I make it to LAOTY.

And, yes, I do like the colours in this one. I especially like the lit up house on the other side of the arch and the reflected light in the road that makes it look wet. On the one hand they feel like happy accidents but on the other hand also the result of my style so should have been expected. Oh, and there don’t seem to have been any adverse fixative effects, which is good. I struggled at times with the perspective in this one, in particular with getting vertical lines to bend inwards at the right angles. All to do with three point perspective, with a third vanishing point above the painting giving a worm’s eye view. Nothing to worry about in normal two point perspective shots but something to watch out for next time I get a three point perspective view. Anyway, this one’s up for sale, with the price to be found here.

Oh, and Olly just told me he thinks he took the photo in Valencia.