"Poppy Fest" came together in a fun way. I am really liking this Uart paper I began using a couple of months ago. The process for this was a little different than my usual procedure mainly because of the underpainting. I took some "in progress" photos as I thought you might like to see how it came together.
I have a product called Caran d'Ache Neocolor Watercolor Crayons. I bought them at a trade show long ago. They work just like regular crayons do except when you mist them with a fine spray of water they soften and blend into a watercolor wash. Above is the crayon coloring, and below is after I sprayed it with a mist of water.
Now, I like the randomness of washes so I let this one run and encouraged it by tilting the paper in different ways. At one point it got away from me, but that's okay. It gave me some nice areas on which to scumble the pastel.
The watercolor has dried and with a white pastel pencil I drew the outlines of the shapes of the flowers and buds.
The pastel work has begun, and I've managed to complete the first two poppies in the lower left corner and a little of the greenery. I played it rather loosely using mostly the side of the pastel. I tried to make the most central poppy the focal point, and blurred the other poppies a bit so they wouldn't steal the show. The end result is the painting at the top.
