Step one was to select several landscape photos and make black and white thumbnails sketches.
Step two was to create black and white drawings from the thumbnail drawings.
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2
3
4
The last step was to create small pastel paintings from the drawings.
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2
3a
3b
This was a fun exercise and I found I really enjoyed working on the black and white drawings. I think I will try to make it a regular part of the painting process. I like what happened in the drawing from photo one. I cropped out most of the photo. I liked the idea of two completely different textures in one painting. I'm not sure how well it translated to the color painting. The photo for image 2 was almost abstract so it wasn't difficult to make an abstract painting. The thumbnails from photo 4 were the most challenging. I cropped the photo and made several thumbnails. For the drawing I turned it on its side and I think it is the strongest abstract drawing. I haven't tried to translate it into color yet but will post it as soon as I complete one.
This was a fun way to jumpstart a year of painting and push my technical skills by making the black and white drawing before starting a color pastel. I appreciated Debora's thoughtful comments and suggestions. I think it was time well spent.
