Day 4 30 Day Challenge - An Experiment Gone Awry!!

                                                           Red-Throated Conure
                                                                         4"x4"
                                                              Color Pencil/Pastel
Well I am a firm believer that you just got to try it.  And conveniently that is what is great about doing the 30 paintings in 30 day challenge - you stretch, you can experiment and win or goof and not feel too bad about it.  When I write my memoirs, when I am 90, I want to say I tried it, did/didn't like it, but at least I tried it.  Well this is the case here.  If you are a bird person you know this is a far cry from what a Red-throated Conure looks like on a good day.

I wanted to do something in color pencil, been a while, and wow do you forget a lot when you don't do it.  Anyway I really like the pan pastels so put down the background and thought I would put a base coat red under the green head and green under the red/yellow belly.  Forgot that color pencil is transparent so I really couldn't get any traction on having the colors show up over the base coat.  I tried workable fixative - well that really didn't make much of a difference either.  So ended up putting some pastel over the pan pastel/color pencil globs below.

Don't get me wrong, there are things I like about this and it truly was a learning experience.  I think there really is a way to use pan pastels and color pencils together - I just need to keep on experimenting and who knows what I'll find out next?

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Comments

Joan Tavolott said…
That's the good part about the challenge...you can play with materials and find out what works with what and how you can change things. I love the reflected part of the bird's eye and the texture you have in the feathers. I may have to do a bird soon...I'm missing working with color that pops. All the dogs and cats I've done are so similar in coloring.
January 4, 2017 at 3:23 PM
Mellowood Gallery said…
I think that mixing media is much harder than just sticking to one but, as yu say, it is good to experiment. Keeping on plugging away there Nelvia
January 5, 2017 at 10:37 AM
Nelvia said…
Yes, usually I don't make the same mistake twice, but I am experimenting with using multiple things to try to achieve the look I want. I know what you mean, I have already deviated from animals because it gets boring after a while.
January 5, 2017 at 10:52 AM
Nelvia said…
Well it is harder when it doesn't work, but who knows until you try it. I hate to sometimes post the abject failures but always think I might save someone else the trouble. I'm plugging girlfriend!!
January 5, 2017 at 10:53 AM
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