PASTEL CLASS FALL 2015 Project: Cool Refuge

In our last class we got most everything under painted except for the chair and the plants underneath the chair so if I started with the plants under the chair getting them under painted.

Have your reference photo in front of you so you can see what I'm talking about. If you look at the plants as they go under the chair they become cooler in color because they are not only in a shady area but there is also in a cast shadow from the chair creating a darker color shadow on the plant. To achieve this color I found a dark, cool green and basically scribbled the color in under the chair filling in where the plant will go. You want that erratic scribbled look to your chalk strokes so that it looks like a jumble of leaves under the chair, it's not a wall it’s a plant, you don't paint it in flat or vertical you want to create texture and you do that by scribbling in the color. As the plant comes out from under chair switch to a warmer but still darker green and create the underpainting for your plant. This plant is growing out of cracks in the walkway so suggest that your plant is also doing this with an irregular shape at the bottom. I will start adding a bit of detail later but leave this for now.

I also added plants into the pot in the back and the flower box using light green some medium green nothing really dark at least not yet and just suggested some plants. I didn't erase any of the color that I had already put for the window I just blended in the color that was there with the new color of greens.

For the curtains I took a darker blue and I just drew in the gap between the curtains leaving what was there as the curtain color adding a little bit of detail to the curtains with a lighter blue, nothing fancy. For the shadows from the planter box and the pot I just used a soft purple color it was almost grey.

Starting the highlight of the stones of the walkway, I started back by the door. They are a light yellow but not quite as light as the wall. I made little marks that were close together and jumbled up to suggest highlights on the tops of the stones in front of the door and down the front of the building. There is a shadow that is being cast by the shadowed wall down that walkway so as I got into that shadowed area I switched from yellow to a light orange, from the light orange, to red orange and from the red orange into burnt sienna and blues and from the burnt sienna and blues into blues and grays and most of my darker cooler colors this is still part of the underpainting but it is now starting to suggest the texture of a cobblestone walkway I will do more later as I am finishing up my painting. I did fill in underneath my chair after I had the chair based in I used the dark colors to help create the edges of the plant and also my chair.

Looking at the referencephoto I wanted to see on the chair where the dark and the lights were also I was looking to see if and where there were color changes in the wood. If you look at the photo you will see that the back of the chair is a darker, color gray color while the front of the chair and the two legs are lighter and warmer, they have more brown than them, this is how you need to paint your chair so that it doesn't look flat when you finish. Starting in the back part of the chair I took a medium dark grey and colored in the slats on the back of the chair, I also took a light lavender blue and lightly went over all of the slats as well and gently blended them together with my fingers. The seat of the chair and the front of the chair I used a soft, warm grey and a light grey blended those lightly together. The legs that come down from the arms were a very warm, almost, grey color my chalk said it was burnt sienna but it was a very light burnt sienna. I also used a little bit darker version of that color in shadowed areas along with that lavender blue color lightly blending them together.

The arms of the chair have some very dark wood. The top of the closer arm is very dark so I used a darker brown for that, I also used the darker brown for the shadow under the opposite arm and the shadow on the leg right below it near the ground and also for the leg at the back of the chair where it touches the ground on the close side.

Once I had the chair based in I wanted to work a little bit on those plants if you have a deep turquoise green color that is perfect for the shadow color of the plants underneath it needs to be just a little bit lighter than what you already have there. Again you are just going to make a bunch of random marks vaguely in the shape of leaves. Look at the photograph, mostly what you see is just a mass of color you if you look close you will see detail but really all you see is a jumble of green, that is what you need to try and recreate under your chair rather than painting each individual leaf it will look way too busy.

When you get finished putting in the shadowed leaves under the chair switch to a lighter medium green for the leaves that are outside of the chair, none of these leaves will get very bright because all of it is in the shadow so don't pick up a light green chalk, you want a medium light color and if it is slightly on the blue side the better. Do the same thing with this lighter color to create a jumble of shapes to create the impression of leaves. I also took my dark indigo blue color and added some shadows back into and underneath some of the plant to create more texture. I will be finishing this later.

This is where I left off so try to get your painting as close to this as you can and we will continue with our chair next time keep painting and I will see you in class.