The Blue Hat pastel portrait

The Blue Hat



Just a bit of playing in the art room today.  Started the morning off at 1:30am with a tremendous and unexpected thunderstorm.   It come so fast, rained so hard that I thought it was going to come through  the roof.  

Since I haven't been using my soft pastels they were getting a bit unruly, so thought I better give this girl another go.  Used black paper.  I wanted to still try to have her emerge on the dark background, but felt it was just too stark and empty so added the blue on the left side.  I got a better image of flowers for the hat and added her 3D dress.  The dress is part of a is a napkin, collaged and then I painted and pastel over it to try to tame it down so it would fit better into the composition.  Just wanted to see if I could add curves and fold texture and, if so, how it would it look.   I do think you can still tell it is not flat on the paper.   But I don't think it stands up so much that you couldn't frame it with mat and glass/acrylic.  I have some ideas of things I might want to do using that effect or more texture paste.

One thing I really wanted to do was not blend - it is my pastel custom and I usually don't like to see the strokes - so if anything I really tried to emphasize the marks in her complexion, etc.  But got to tell you my fingers are itching to smooth it out.  

Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.

Comments

carol edan said…
I love the texture of the un-smoothed pastels! Don't you dare!
April 8, 2019 at 12:55 AM
Sheila said…
I had to zoom in to see what her dress was made of. I love that texture, and want to reach out and touch it ;) Her eyes are so soulful Nelvia. I love the energy in the flowers, and the marks are wonderful this way. Take Carol's cue, and leave it. :) WOW... Sounds like a major storm!
April 8, 2019 at 1:48 AM
Mellowood Gallery said…
I'm with you on smoothing her skin tones although the colours you choose are great. I like the effect of the napkin too.
April 8, 2019 at 1:30 PM
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