Wowie, Maui!

I have been absent from my blog for quite awhile.  I got tied up in this pastel and lost track of everything.  I had such a difficult time with this piece.  It really challenged me.

I do iterative saves of my work.  What’s that?  I too wondered when I saw this feature.  That means that as I progress with my painting, I save it as, Wowie, Maui 001, Wowie, Maui 002, etc.  That way if the painting takes an ugly turn, I can go back to an earlier version and restart.  It’s a great feature.

This pastel has 100 iterative saves!  The clouds have been through many changes in several different colors.  First, too dull, then too bright, then too this and then too that.  Ugh.  I finally got almost finished.  I decided to call it quits and just post it.

I showed it to my husband,  He said, “I don’t think you want to do that.”  Huh?  He’s supposed to love all my work.  However, I really appreciated his honesty.  In my heart, I knew it just wasn’t right.  But I was so frustrated.

What to do?

Ah, ha.  I called my friend, Aaron Rutten.  Aaron is a fellow digital artist.  He is incredibly knowledgeable about Painter and about composition, color theory, and on and on.  You can check out his web page here.

In addition to his web page, he has tons of videos on using Painter.  He is so generous with his knowledge.  I think this is just wonderful.  You can see his You Tube videos here.

Aaron also teaches at the Digital Art Academy (DAA).  His classes are a lot of fun to take and everyone learns a lot.  Check out his advanced landscape class here.  I have also taken his introductory Landscape class and the Collage class.  I never could have done any of my landscapes or sunsets without the knowledge I gained in his classes.

So, Aaron came over to give me a lesson in Painter and art.  I showed him this sunset, and he immediately had some very simple, but incredibly helpful suggestions.  I was thrilled.

Aaron gives lessons in person and via the web.  If you ever want input on your art, I highly recommend him.  His charges are very reasonable.

So, after being lost in this pastel, I’ve come through the other side.  I hope you enjoy it.  I finally do.