This weeks 52Frames challenge is Leading Lines. I wanted to use a reference picture from Orkney that I took several years ago. I did not intend to do this in oil pastel, but then I thought I could try out a technique I had seen in a book I am looking at, of creating stencils for small shapes. I liked this although it was difficult to cut the wires both thin enough and long enough. The poles in the background, the birds and the wires are all created with stencils. There is an acrylic wash underneath, with the oil pastel  worked over the top. Some of the textures are created but scraping back. The straight lines in the horizon are achieved by using an edge of paper to work against.

As previously the scale is quite small making some things difficult to do well, but there are bits I am pleased with and I enjoyed trying out the new techniques.

orkney landscape in oil pastel on acrylic wash