I’m baaaack! I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since last we spoke; but I’m happy to say I’ve gotten over myself and decided to return to the creative space. I could offer excuses for my sabbatical, but they’re all pretty lame. Truth is, I set myself a bit too overwhelming a task to live up to. Sure, in little ways I create something every day; but I want to focus my energies a bit more and create more meaningful pieces. If that means I only make one post a week, at least I’ll be doing myself a service rather than giving myself a chore. It is with this in mind that I present to you the first of many experiments in new media (well, new to me at least).
The media are soft pastels and india ink on paper. The view is of a recent sunset seen from the bank of a lovely little lake just up the street from my house. Pardon the image quality: the paper was too big for my scanner, so I took a photo with my phone 
This was a really quick sketch, as I arrived just as the yellow was beginning to show. The progression of colors—not to mention the red rain in the foreground—were much more beautiful than I managed to capture. By the time I finished, it was already twilight; and I felt drained, yet happy. I learned a whole lot about pastels with this study, like making sure to lay down a base color underneath everything before adding specifics. You can still see patches of white space where I waited to add color until later in the process (which, I discovered, can be confusing to the eye when trying to approximate perspective and such). I really want to go back and work more on my water texturing; because the strong winds made lovely little waves all across the surface which caught all the colors of the sky. My “waves” ended up a bit more broad and scattered; but, like I said, I’ve learned a lot for next time 
I can’t yet say what my next creation will be; but I have a whole new set of tools to work with, so stay tuned for more studies and experiments in the days to come. I’m aiming for at least a post a week nowadays, so I should be back by Thursday at the latest. Here’s hoping I’ll be back sooner.
Ciao for now,
W
