MY BACKYARD LILIES

My Backyard Lillies 16" x 12" Original Pastel Painting by Raelene Shea. This original pastel was sketched  directly from my garden but took many layers from hard to soft to capture the independence of the lilies from the rear trellis. I love gardening and lilies are one of my favorite subjects.These lilies bloomed every year in a corner of my garden until they were finally eaten by a deer. I loved the delicasy of them and yet the bold way they stood up to the elements in central British Columbia. The trellis at the back was actually against a concrete wall, but the painting needed contrast and depth, so I chose to use a dark blue/plum sanded paper to mimic darkness behind. My pastels usually start with a specific drawing, followed by  block in using hard pastels in at least one shade lighter than what I want for the finished painting. Then I progressively layer  up to finishing with very soft pastels. Here I used Unison soft and pastel pencils for last minute definition. I do use fixative, but under the final soft pastel layer.