I’ve kind of finished my painting. I did fill the paper, but that doesn’t mean it’s there yet:
I’m quite happy with some of the elements (the sea, the peony, the nightly landscape) and less happy with others. The butterfly seems to be out of place somehow. The colours are wrong, I think. Of course, it’s a fantasy butterfly (with music keys and signs on its wings), but that doesn’t mean there’s no “right” or “wrong” (in my opinion ;)).
Perhaps the butterfly should be entirely blue (or at least painted in cool colours)? The shape is also not entirely the way I intended, but I guess that I could fix the lower wings. jThe black and white things (piano keys and music notes) are perhaps too black… I’m just not sure yet.
I’m leaving it for now, because I’m afraid that I will keep adjusting things to fix it and just make things worse. I need some new energy and a fresh look to identify the solution to the problem that I’m sensing. But even if I don’t find it, it isn’t bad. It’s a nice and happy and colourful painting, and I think my mum will like it anyway.
I’m glad that I’m working with pastels, that way I can erase parts and fix mistakes more easily than with a liquid medium. I’ve done the rough sketch with a pastel pencil, but then I moved on to pastels. I used some Blockx pastels that I bought in a sale. They are Belgian pastels with nice colours. They are a little hard and chalky, and good for details. I’ve also used the Sennelier pastels that I have (I have a box with small samples) and those are just sooooo soft and buttery and full of rich colour, a joy to work with, and I think they are my favourite!