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| English: Pigments for sale on market stall, Goa, India. e. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
As I went to work out, my Thursday planned ahead, my mom called to say she had a ride up here on Saturday, instead of taking the train on Monday. That's great but it crunches my schedule. Plus, I had my shopping to do, and some housework. I have two reviews on deck too. My plan for this project was, I had planned to choose a picture to paint and decide on a medium.
My media are pastels or oil paint. Oil paint is like the tantric sex of the art supply store. It's smooth, and oily and takes forever. Pastels are more like a one night stand. Both are hugely toxic. Pastels because they create a fine dust you breathe in and it has lovely things like cadmium on it.
Oil paints are toxic because of the pigments, binder (gives the "stick" to paint) and the vehicle, what makes it flow. And of course there are solvents and additions that make it shiny, or stiff, or make it dry faster. All the stuff in paint and those add-ins usually enter the air a mild toxin. They are also not something good to get on the skin or to ingest. Because of the quality of paint, the time it takes to prepare the foundation an oil painting can take me days, weeks and months to finish. I love the feel of paint and oddly, the solvents seem to help my sinus. I doubt it's really help and it will probably all kill me someday.
A pastel could take a week. but there is no drying time. And there's little in the way of mixing. The foundation is usually paper; it's usually compressed to make it stiffer and is textured in someway. I like something that has had a finish applied like a sandpaper.
So, I am leaning towards this picture. It already has good composition which is amazing since I took it with my telephone in driving rain in Aix-en-Provence.
Because I tend to work more loosely in pastel I think I will start there. I need that one-night painting stand.
