Painting Without Edges, Part 2

After the Rain, pastel, 9 x 12

In my pastel classes this week we continued with "painting without edges" which mainly refers to getting things started in the underpainting stage, avoiding definition of lines or hard edges and massing in areas of the painting in a way that allows each area to gradually fade into the next area. To read last week's post, which explains more about this method, click here: http://barbarajaenicke.blogspot.com/2012/08/painting-without-edges.html

My reference photo was shot on a rainy, misty day with low, diffused light, which works great for this type of technique when you don't need a lot of sharp contrast.

Following below are some photos from my demo...

A very rough, soft edged block in using Nupastels.

Wet down with an alcohol wash.

Even as I start layering colors and adjusting values, 

I still keep edges soft in these early stages.

Once I get all areas of the painting covered, I start 

defining only a few edges that need it. 

In this case, the soft edges of most of the painting 

made a nice backdrop for the crisp edges of 

the foreground tree, which I defined in the later stages.

Completed painting, "After the Rain" on Uart 320 grit. 

The reference photo.