Version 2 of "Old Denizen" Pastel Painting

The first pastel painting I did when we moved to Taiwan was from a photo taken on our first hike in the local hills. I discovered that working with soft pastels in a hot, humid environment was very different from working with them in a dry place. The sticks seemed almost "greasy." I couldn't seem to control them on the page. Plus, I'd given myself some pretty tough challenges: the paper I was painting on was a deep red, the original scene was almost chaotic, I wasn't particularly experienced painting forest interiors (especially Taiwan's!) and there was this interesting log in lying on the ground that looked like a snake no matter how I painted it.

Eventually, I got the image on the right. It sat like this for months. I wiped it off and tried again on the same paper. It wasn't much better. Then it sat for several more months.

Finally, I wiped it off one more time and tried it again, almost a year after the first attempt. By this time, I'd had some more success with the pastels, dabbling first in little paintings, and then larger ones until I could get some control over the new feel of the medium in this environment. I also drew, and drew, and drew...as much Taiwanese imagery as I could. That helped.

Here's the resulting "Version 2" of "Old Denizen." I've corrected the mistaken interpretation of some of the branches, removed the "snake" log, and worked mostly on lighting the branches and the ground better. It's closer to the original photograph. Is it better than the first version? I suppose that's up for debate, depending on what you like. I find this version more satisfying. In any case, the composition isn't particularly compelling, so I don't think I'll post it in the gallery, but I'm glad for the experience. I learned a lot!