Relaxed Man
ink, watercolour, and pastel
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")

This painting went through several stages: it started out as a transparent watercolour, evolved (or devolved) into an opaque watercolour, and was finished with pastels. The transparent watercolour wasn't working. This forced a change to opaque watercolour to cover the mistakes, and then, just to see what would happen, pastel was added. The pastels don't entirely work on a rough watercolour paper. It's difficult to draw a smooth, uninterrupted line with pastel on watercolour paper. The pastel tends to sit on the ridges of the paper. The effect isn't bad, but overall I prefer a straight opaque watercolour or gouache.