Aspen Trees

'Two Old Souls' 8x10 pastel

Aspens are my favorite trees and I really wish they would grow here in Georgia. I have to be content with taking pictures and painting them. Today’s painting is a demo I did in a class. We wanted to work on a close up landscape and we both chose these aspens for the lesson. I decided to do a value based underpainting with an alcohol wash. When I finished the demo I decided that the painting seemed too dark. I wanted to simplify and lighten it so I sprayed it with workable fixative and added more pastels allowing me to make the changes without making muddy color. I like the effect I get by painting over the fixed areas.