That Cold Fuzzy Feeling (more on how to combine oil and chalk pastels)

My first month in Germany provided me with a lot of opportunities for culture shock-- I think one of the strongest impressions I still remember was my first glimpse of what was once an East German town, but had become part of the newly reunified Germany.
I've been to L.A. many times, and I've never seen air as dirty as what the people in that town were breathing. Everything had a grayish-brown tint to it, and the dominating figure in the town was a factory with a tall smokestack. The tower in this painting was on the outskirts of the town, and I took a picture to remind me of the up-close view.
To create the abandoned look in this picture, I colored the tower in first with the orange-peach tone (oil pastel). I then blocked in some of the blues and darks (again with oil pastel). Once I had the basic shapes and values in, I went over the picture with chalk pastel, smearing it in as I went. For this piece, I did a lot of layering and scratching-- the underlayer of oil pastel allowed me to make scratches in strategic areas to let the peach color show through. I used white chalk pastel over some peach oil color to give the sky that fuzzy, less than clean feel.
"Obsolete"
9 x 12 Oil and Chalk Pastel on Paper
Click here to buy print:

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