Lessons learned in class today

Sometimes life just gets in the way of you being able to accomplish your goals, and it gets frustrating, but you can't give up.  Back in the saddle again so they say.  Well, I didn't get the painting finished that I had started yesterday, and that's a little upsetting when I made a goal to do a painting a day, but hopefully I will be able to call it complete sometime this evening.

So instead I thought I'd share some lessons I learned in today's pastel class.  This is the painting I did last Wednesday for homework that was critiqued today.

I was happy with this one, but absolutely LOVE it after I put in place all the pointers I received today.
Here is the updated version.

So first  Nick Serratore (the instructor) suggested I use broader strokes on the yellow and mint colored trees - of course I couldn't remember what colors in my box I had used, so I had to improvise with similar colors.  Next,  I needed some more hints to sunlight to bring out the shadows more so I used the same color as the yellow tree and added a bit to the cherry tree and the grass area.  Then I was reminded to always add colors that in the sky and the main subject to the ground area so that it creates continuity.  This, I already knew to do, but sometimes you need to be reminded.  I put more pinks into the grass area. 

I was pretty pleased that I didn't need to do a major overhaul. Today's homework is going to be a major challenge for me.  We are to use only lines - no blending and no touching the paper with anything but the pastel.  I, for one, am a heavy blender so this will be a struggle, very monotonous with all the lines - but I'm excited to have learned about yet another technique so I will share the finished product soon.