Spft pastel for underpainting

Underpainting brushed in with mineral spirits

I decided to do something different with this third–and LAST–cloud picture. I didn’t like the cakiness in the last one and decided that I wanted to get the color in right up front. So I used Liz Haywood-Sullivan’s method of lightly applying soft pastel, than washed it in with mineral spirits. I didn’t start with charcoal with this one and the drawing was pretty sketchy. As a rule, I don’t like to use soft pastels for an underpainting, as I think they can become too gummy and thick if you aren’t careful. But I can see it with this subject matter as there aren’t  enough of the right colors in the hard pastels for skies and clouds. (Reading this over makes me think that I sound like the writers in Cooks Magazine! If any of you have it, you’ll know what I’m referring to.) For some reason, the bottom is strange–there was a section in the middle that wouldn’t take the pastel very well. The Wallis paper didn’t always seem very happy with these applications!!!