Bright and Breezy, Bachelor's Buttons!

Time to throw myself into a landscape painting, a summery scene with wheat and cornflowers! Here’s my inspiration, my reference photo taken on one of my walks. I posted my sketch of the cornflowers a couple of weeks ago. In my painting I would like to try for a bit of a different horizon, my paintings tend to have straight horizons and panoramas because the area where I live is totally flat, which makes cycling a pleasure (if you avoid hitting concrete bulwarks). 

Now getting the first strokes onto my support, a greeny grey Sennelier PastelCard. 

I've lengthened the tree trunk to make it a little more elegant, going for some summer blues here and popping in my blooms. In the past I would've put these in last on top of the grasses/wheat but I have changed my technique a little over the last months as I found layering frustrating, especially when there is some detail. Of course, I do still layer thickly but I try to work around some of the finer grasses to get better lines. 

As for the wheat lots of strokes are involved, I sometimes use a ruler to get a mass of strokes and as you can see everything from CarbOthello pastel pencils, hard pastels and soft are in the grasses. All those stalks can drive you bonkers ...... let’s hope it’s all worth it in the end and I get some bright and breezy Bachelor's buttons!