Zoom and fix. Voila!

Pepsi Man, Pastel, 18x24

Pepsi Man was finished and photographed. But something in the face bothered me. I didn't know what, so didn't how to fix it.

As I prepared a CD of Pepsi Man for a competition, my mind wandered: How are jurors looking at the images, now that they are digital. (Remember how all entries used to be slides?) Staring at the image on my monitor, I realized that areas of the image could be enlarged to get a better peek at how the medium and color were handled. Does the juror do that? I don't know, but it became an instant learning tool for me. 

When I zoomed in on the eyes, I got a big shout out as to what was wrong! Fixing it was easy with a few simple swipes of pastel. The eyes now looked away, and in the same direction. As I stepped back, away from the painting, Pepsi Man actually seemed to have changed personality. What little effort it took!  

I hope you can benefit from this "Voila" moment. And that you will be more careful than I, and make sure you photograph that last minute change. I forgot to do it!

I was lazy . . . and that's good.

I love painting with pastels, but pastel dust IS messy. It sifts down; it magically transfers from the hand to a clean stick. So I always try to clean my pastels and work area when a painting is finished. Like starting fresh.

Reflections on the Williams was finished, and I was tired. I dropped the pastels into my Cherry Pastel Cleaner. It would have taken at most five minutes to run the machine, sift the pastels out, and sort them back into the clean ones. But they sat there, dirty, on top of the grits.

Delhi Gaze, Pastel, 10x8

Next day I revisited Evening Song, deciding to paint the focus petals larger. Delhi Gaze came out of hiding and needed a new layer of pastel. Then Pondicherry Beach Nuts chanted, "start me, finish me." All the while, the Reflections pastels sat in the cleaner, dirty, on top of the grits.

Being lazy turned out to be good. Finally giving the Cherry Cleaner a whirl, I realized that not having cleaned the first batch of pastels kept me from using them. And that insured that the next painting would not use the same set of colors. My favorites were captive in the cleaner; I was forced to choose only the colors that were on my clean palette. 

What's with the grits? That good ole southern food is the perfect, mildly abrasive product for the Cherry Pastel Cleaner. The Cleaner tumbles and vibrates the pastels, removing all the dirty residue. Cherry is hosting their First Annual Pastel Classic online, terrific images, terrific product.