Revision: "Sunrise, Ramah Lake" 19x25 pastel by Michael Chesley Johnson AVAILABLE |
The other day, I wrote about coming across a couple of large pastels from 15+ years ago that I wanted to rework. Here is the second (and last.) I really like the color of the original piece, but the foreground design was rather static. So, I propped it up on the easel and got to work.
Of course, one thing leads to another. I decided I also had to:
- Lighten the sky
- Add more warmth to the clouds
- Make more irregular (and thus natural-looking) the “wedding cake” cliffs on the left (based on observations made from life this week)
- And, finally, modify the color of green of the floating rafts of lake weed so it wasn't so acidic and intense
Along the way, I also worked on my main goal, and added more dynamic and rhythmic strokes to the reflections and rafts of weeds.
Here's the original and the revision, side by side:
Left: Original; Right: Revision |
I think it's a better piece because of this effort, and now I'll look for a nice frame for this and the first revision I did.
Now, I need to start working on that studio piece for the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art!