A Pair of Pears

By far, this is the best of the 4 pastels I have done thus far.  It sort of came together.  Watching a YouTube video helped, too, to get an idea about how to proceed.

I used my fingers for most of the blending, and used a baby wipe in between to clean up dirty finger tips.  I also worked the primary background and foreground first, working around the pears before doing the pears themselves.  For the Saguaro painting, I had done the cactus first and then the sky – not really successful as the sky became a bit smudged with the greens.  Live and learn!  I used a torchon / stump for the areas closest to the pears and in the shadows to help isolate things.  I cleaned them off with rough sandpaper – 100 grit.

Another thing I did was consider color and complementary colors in the painting.  I simplified and did big areas before moving into smaller and more defined regions.

Of course, not all paintings will be this successful!  It’s fun to compile knowledge and start using it when creating a picture or painting.  The simplicity of this painting pleases me, but it was a more complex process than may appear because of the multiple layers of color put down.