Pencil to Pastel

Adapting a gray toned pencil sketch 

into colour (pastel)

is like a translating a conversation 

from one language to another.

 In my sketch I was interested 

in exploring the textural contrasts of shapes and line

( the softly curving ferns versus the vertical grasses and trees).

There is also an indication of filtered light in the upper third.

When I adapted these ideas into colour

interesting changes became necessary.

Those strong verticals 

(grasses and red brown tree trunks)

 dominated the composition

so I increased the number of ferns 

and allowed them to carry the eye into the background.

The filtered light

prevents the tree trunks 

from being too dominate

and pulls the eye back down 

to the forest floor.