Spring is in the Air. Pastel sketch.

Postcard No 48: Life by the River

I’ve been doing some ecoprinting in my dirty pot today testing out various different eucalyptus leaves from nearby. This means I have to keep a small fire burning to boil my bundles for 3 hours, so while I waited and stoked the fire I painted a little postcard of the scene.

I was happily sketching away in the other cane chair while my old copper laundry tub did it’s work.

Spring is beginning to send some feelers out and a bit of colour is coming to the garden , although this is a bit of an imagined background as right behind the firepit is a boring old wall.

That’s the beauty of creative sketching…not everything has to be literal. Here I’ve taken the essence of the day (fire, pot, chair , spring springing) and added in some colour and texture .

Working with pastels is all about layering. I really should have added more darks behind the old copper but the paper doesn’t take many layers and I started too light!

Anyway, lesson learned, and if I paint it larger it will definitely get some more darks added in.

It’s been a hapy day, even digging up some lawn to make a corn patch was satisfying, and I have the anticipation of opening those ecoprint bundles later on.

Prismacolour pastels on black sketchbook.

Lindy Whitton Studio