Water Reflections and a Sunset

Version #1 on Uart paper with pastel and rubbing alcohol underpainting

In case my Tuesday night class quickly finishes the Red River Reflections lesson I need another "Water Reflections" lesson. This time let's add a sunset to give some strong color to the water.

I'm posting 4 versions of the same sunset. 

I took the reference photographs from sitting in my kayak. That makes the shoreline totally flat since I'm sitting right on the top of the water as opposed to maybe standing above the water on a bank or maybe a bridge. 

The first version was an 8"x11" on Uart paper with an underpainting created with pastel and rubbing alcohol wash. I used only NuPastel.

The second and third versions were 6"x9" sketches on Italian clay colored Pastel Premier sanded paper made by Hand-book Paper Co. In the rest of these versions I used the much softer Sennelier and Mt. Vision pastels. 

The last version was 10"x8.5" again on Italian clay colored Pastel Premier, but it was an older version of the paper and much more textured. Why do I mention that? Because the texture of sanded paper can very much affect how you deal with the layering of colors and the pressure you use to get the pastel to stick well and cover that texture, unless you want the color of the paper to show through.

I like to work in a series especially when I feel like I have not found the form of expression I was aiming for in the first version. Version 2 & 3 are more loosely created with more expressive marks.

Version #2 on clay color sanded paper - less uptight application of color

Version #3 also on clay colored sanded paper

Version #4 - clay colored paper. New format 

This version has a focus on the setting sun and the colors of the sunset. I like this more simplified version as it's focus is more apparent and I think the format more interesting. Because the paper is more highly textured I pushed much harder with the pastel to cover the clay color of the paper.