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I had an opportunity to do a demo for a Art Organization and decided to do the demo on Underpaintings, a Roadmap for a successful painting.  I work in both pastels and oils but decided to do this demo on the different products and techniques I use for my underpaintings in pastels.  I had sectioned off a large pastel board into 6 smaller pieces.  I had done the notans and the value sketches in advance so I had just penciled in the larger shapes onto the boards.  All the paintings I had not done before with the exception of one, so I was going into this totally blind.  Most artists when they are doing a demo will have done the actual piece they are working on over and over again.  So there is nothing left to question.  I don't typically work that way because I like the surprises.  All the photos I was working on were taken by me and are in my stack of photo references.  They were all carefully chosen as to shape, shadow and light.  As I painted for the evening, answering questions from the fellow artists, using different products and techniques, I stood back to look at the different ones and some I really liked the underpainting and thought they had much promise, and some I didn't like so much and thought they were not going anywhere.  As I wrapped up the evening I promised everyone that I would finish all six paintings and post on my website so they could see the finish products.   I worked all weekend on these, even the ones that I thought did not show any promise.   Was I surprised.  The ones I really liked and thought they showed great promise were of some disappointment, and the ones I thought had no promise turned out quite lovely.  The above picture is one of those.   This one had the ugliest of underpaintings.  I was really surprised, but I love when this happen.  It really teaches you humility. and unexpected blessings.   So my lesson here is never take any painting for granted.  If you think it is unfixable think again.  Even if you have to paint over it something good may come of it.  You just never know.

     Below is the underpainting I thought was not good.   The top painting is the finished painting.  This painting was based on a picture I took in Minnesota in January and it was about 19 below zero.   Very cold, still, and absolutely no light day.  I was not sure I could pull this one off but I really like the outcome.  I might even do a larger of this one. 

Blessings to All 

Do What You Love and Love What You Do