Step by step - A soft pastel painting of a landscape by Manju Panchal

"Colour is the pulse of the painting." Michele Cooper

The pastel painting as below is of a morning scene from 

Keoladeo Ghana National Park, in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

I visited this beautiful Sanctuary in the month

 of November, some years back. 

 The morning sun rays  lit up the tall dry grass

 blades and the scene came up live and vibrant with colours. 

The warm colours  of the sunlit grass was such a contrast to the

 cool colours of the shadows in the surroundings.

The Morning Glow

Soft pastel painting on Canson MT paper

Size 6"X 8"

The soft pastel painting as above progressed in stages. 

I am posting two images below.

Step 1. Keeping the composition in mind, I drew a faint outline

and then blocked in the major shapes using the underlying 

dark colours keeping in mind the values.

( The sky and water were painted in similar colours )

Step 2. Started the second layer of colours, adding details and
strokes to suggest foliage, grass etc.Smudging only
if required, else I just leave original pastel strokes.

Step 3. In the final stage of the pastel painting, added highlights
and few other details.

To browse through my other artworks visit my BLOG

or INSTAGRAM page.