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This the first pastel painting that I did on top of the printmaking I did right before the big trip (underpainting is eight photos up from the bottom of that blog). My take on this process is that it isn’t my thing.

First of all, the paper does not have enough tooth in it, and painting in pastel over this might work better if I had a lighter touch. (That is probably why Dawn Emerson in the class I took last spring recommended using the light weight, sheer, pan pastels, which I felt looked too much like colorizing a photo.)

Secondly, I covered up all the print in the underpainting, so I felt I might as well have been using a sanded surface that could accommodate more layers. So I’m still feeling my way on how I like to work, and know now, this is not it!

Regardless of all that, I painted here the concept of Gestation, and feel the end result has enough merit to share with you. The size is 15″x30″ on printmaking paper on top of acrylic ink. See the entire work above and details of it below.

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