The photo I took has some of my favorite elements such as a leading line with the road taking you the viewer into the photo. But I was not pleased with the breadth of the road. I wanted it more personal, a more intimate experience for the viewer. I spent 5 days photographing this region and I had driven many one lane roads to gain access throughout the area.
So I took another photo of the same area roads and over laid it onto this base photo. This created
a layer that I could manipulate with the orginal photo. I like using layer masks to build my compositions but if you are not real good at Photoshop you can simply use the eraser. Layer masks allow you to undo and do again where as eraser strokes are permanent history.
Now lets see the two together. You can still see the shadowed road sections from the overlay. I also took artist license and changed some of the highlighted areas in the trees etc. I also lightened the bend in the road so it was the lightest value of the painting which draws your eye back into the painting.
Creating the pastel painting from an under painted surface is a slow process of layering. Here you will see the watercolor underpainting. I rarely use water to under paint my surfaces due to the chance of the paper or board peeling or warping. I use Wallis Museum grade paper mounted on 1/2 inch foam board by dakota arts. I am hoping to make my own boards after speaking with Paul De Marrias.
I do under paint 99% of my pastels before laying pastel to ground. I like using turpentine and hard pastels to block in the large value shapes. First the hard pastels and then I paint the pastel with turpentine starting with the lightest value first. I try to have about 4 to 6 values in my paintings (general rule of thumb). I also like to have the values heavily weighted. In other words have the painting mostly consist of lighter values and a smaller but important value area that is much darker. Or visa versa. Here I am laying in the darks. I will establish the darkest dark but leave myself some "wiggle room" in cast I need to drop the value down another notch.
Now that the dark background value is established I start building some color in the foliage. I have also established the lightest value where the road turns and catches the afternoon light.
Here I open up the tree canopy and start building the darker values in the foliage. I lay in the highlights on the aspen trunk in the foreground and add some trunk texture.
I have just about completed the shadowed foliage and can soon add the highlighted foliage.
Here I have added a top layer of pastel without any touch blending, only using sticks to blend the highlights, mid tones and shadows. The road takes on a lot more character and the strips of sunlight contine to the far side of the road. The highlights really make this piece pop!