Unseeing

I've been a photographer since the era of 110 cameras.  (seriously) And while I didn't know it then, for better or for worse, it's shaped my life and my vision.

Learning to paint has been a study in unseeing.  I've honed the skills of looking for details for decades, and now everything I've read says I need to forget them and see the bigger picture.

Okay.

Sigh.

I've been playing with a tonalist style, and failing pretty miserably.  At least I feel it's more of an impressionistic style at this point, which is better than photo realism, but still not exactly what I was working toward.  I don't have issues with people who paint photo realism, I promise!  I just decided that if I wanted photo realism, I'd take a photo, that's what I do...

So bear with me over the next month or so as I fill these pages with attempts at understanding not seeing, and loosening up.  

Did I mention I have pastels? I absolutely splurged and got the Sennelier Paris set. These are beautiful little buttery sticks of color that I have absolutely no idea how to use.  It's just one more step in the adventure.  I also got a set of dark PanPastels.  Again, no clue.  I didn't like the way they worked with the Sennelier because the applicator just removed the color.  (I know, it's probably a totally amateurish thing to do.  I will learn.)

This is the first attempt.  It's horrible.  But at least it looks like what it's supposed to...sort of.  It's a start.  If I never start, I can never get better.  Plus,  I figured if I keep a document of even the horrible things, maybe if/when I learn a decent technique, I'll really feel good about it.

In case you're interested, here's some links to the things I used. 

Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper, Sennelier Paris Pastel Set, and PanPastel Cool Dark Set

Wishing you all a wonderful day.