Aerial Sky Series - Final Light

Here is the next painting in the series, based again on a photo shot from the Denver-Durango flight last July.  We were in seats on the left side of the plane, which meant a southern view and the less dynamic light of the sunset than the brilliant sky I sneaked a look at through the adjacent windows.  Nonetheless, even the confined view from my small window provided spectacular views that I was at least able to capture somewhat with my camera.

"Final Light" - 9x12"

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Surface is Art Spectrum Colourfix, sort of re-claimed.  It had an outline drawing in pastel pencil and charcoal that never made it to the painting stage.  This is the third painting I've done on this paper, and I will be most happy to use the rest of it up.  In order to deal with the texture issues, I actually used a piece of sandpaper to smooth the surface a bit.  This seemed to help the pastel adhere to more than just the top layer of grit on the paper.  I still needed to finger blend areas to get coverage over the paper color ("elephant", I believe), and force the pastel into the deeper tooth of the paper.  I think a combination of sanding and alcohol washes will be the ticket to making this paper work.

That being said, I'm rather happy with the results.  Trying to capture the perspective of the land took some thought, and I ended up doing it as layers and scumbling of multiple darks, in compliments and analogous colors, to achieve the muted tones of a distal and dark earth.

I used several of my Mt. Vision Thunderstorm grays in the clouds; I find the set to be one of the most versatile I own, and indispensable for doing skies and cloudscapes.