Stretching

Again, I've been foiled by snow and darkness for my photos! But, here are a few pieces I've been working on this week. They are all based on real New Mexico chapels. Since it is Easter weekend, I thought that perhaps the chapel thing would be an appropriate subject matter. Especially since there will be no Easter eggs this year. Although I did read somewhere that if you use brown eggs the dyed colors come out much richer--that is sort of my approach to using the colored substrate before I start a piece--more saturated color. But, since feeling The Crunch, I'm not going to spend time dying eggs. Not exactly time appropriate.

I've gotten a little feedback about doing a "tips" section, and while I haven't figured out if (or how) to put them in a special section, I do have one--one that I employed today. And, I hope I don't disappoint other artists who read this, as the "tip" may not be all that special.

TIP ONE: Unless you are totally trying for uniformity (think Seurat), vary the size of your drawing strokes. You'll get out of your box and it will make the piece much more interesting. In the church pieces above, I actually used the sides of my oil pastels to do the adobe of the churches. It meant that I couldn't use one of my favorite colors for sunny-side adobe--Sennelier 18--since Sennelier brand come wrapped in paper and are really too gooey to hold in one's hand for long (unless you like working in a 50 degree or less studio). But I found the combination of colors of the Holbeins to be maybe even better than my fave Sennelier. If I hadn't been trying to vary my stroke size, I may have never achieved this effect. Accident? Stretching? You decide.