PASTEL: Cozy Cottage Week
1
This week we started
work on our pastel painting. I want to remind you that I am working on sanded
paper I made myself and I have also put on a watercolor underpainting. You do
not have to do this. I was just doing it as a demo to show you that you have
options, if you do not wish to work on sanded paper or do not have sanded paper,
you do not need to worry about it. Work on a surface that you feel comfortable
with, you will just have to remember that if you are working on regular pastel
paper you will probably have to spray occasionally to get the tooth back so you
can continue working, because I'm working on sandpaper I won't need to spray my
painting to continue working - one of the advantages of working on sanded
paper.
Having the watercolor
underpainting is just a suggestion at this point I do not need to follow it
exactly I can change anything in the painting as I go with my pastels because
it is just painted on a board not carved in stone, so if you have put in an
under painting don't feel that you must follow it exactly, it is more guideline
then rule of law.
I like to start from the
top and work down which usually translates into starting with the sky and
working into the foreground, this accomplishes a couple of things: First I'm
not dragging my hand through my pastels going back and forth from top to bottom
and two, by putting in the background first I make sure that anything that is behind
is going into be there when I put in what’s in front and I won't have to try
and match colors or strokes to make it look like what is supposed to be behind
the object in front. I hope that made sense. Starting in the background with
the sky I wanted to create soft evening sky with windblown clouds and a hint of
color at the horizon.
The grey in the clouds I
got from mixing several colors together. First I started with a light medium
gray, to that I've added some light blue, some lavender and some white then
blend them together with my fingers in an upward, curved motion. I want the
clouds to look windswept which means that I need to blend them in the direction
that I want them to go. Direction of your stroke is as important in pastel as
it is in oil, acrylic or watercolor because it tells your viewer that something
is in motion or it has a direction for it is laying flat so don't just go back
and forth or up and down, look at what you are going to be painting and follow
the direction of the thing that you are trying to create, in this case it is
windswept clouds.
There is a bit of open
sky right at the bottom of the clouds to the horizon that needs to be a light, raspberry
sherbet color. I think I may have gotten mine to pink and I will correct it in
class next time, you will want yours to be a lighter color than what I have so
use a cool pink a bit on the purple aside and white to create a soft lavender
pink color for this part of the sky. Blended with your fingers or the paper
stump and also blended up into the grey clouds above this will give them a bit
of a change of color like you would see in an evening sky.
At the very bottom of
the sky area along the horizon are some distant trees or hillsides that are not
distinct enough to make out exactly what they are it is just a soft grey mauve
color that is just slightly darker than the sky above it, don't get too dark
otherwise it brings these trees forward and we want to keep them in the distance.
If you do not have a gray purple then use a light lavender and add grey to it
to create the soft distant trees blend them and slightly smudge them into the
sky so there is no hard line.
Find either a blue or a
purple that is just a little bit darker then the distant trees that you just
put in, it would be nice if it had an edge or if you have pastel pencils in the
right value, because you will be drawing the next layer of your distant trees. These
are trees that are closer to the house so you can see branches and trunks but
you don't see detail these are just basically a bunch of lines so don't try to
overthink it just put in a bunch of crooked lines in the background and then
tap them with your finger and soften them slightly.
Next I wanted to put in
the base color for the distance snow between the trees we just put in and the
house. I have a light lavender color that I used behind the house and it goes
back into those trees we just put in. I smudged this color in so that I have
nice soft even texture to it and lightly blended it into those trees in the
distance I will work on this more later I also went over parts of that holly
bush with this color it won't hurt the holly bush in the long run I also under
painted the snow on top of the house. If you do not have a lit enough lavender
or blue, start with white and add in your lightest lavender or blue, just
enough to tint the white.
Next I started to paint
the house. I believe that this little house was made of fieldstones but if you
have your own house or some other thing that you want to put in this area, be
sure that you have your own reference material to look at so that you know what
colors you will need to fill in your building. I started with a warm golden oak
color and I did all the walls with the golden ochre color and then on the
shadowed sides of the walls I added a medium purple then blended the colors in
the shadow area. The roof is a thatched roof which means that it is made with
grasses and not wood or shale shingles or some other building materials, this
was quite common to thatch the roof of a house. I found color that was a little
bit darker then the color I used for the walls and I filled in the areas that
were not covered with snow the key here is my strokes follow the shape of the
roof so they are at an angle depending on the roof, again the direction of your
strokes are important to your painting.
I blended these where I
could with my finger but when the area got too small I switched to my color
shaper. A color shaper is a tool that has a soft rubber tip on the end that
lets you get into small places you can also use a paper stump to blend these
colors just watch your directions.
Then I took my indigo
color (a dark blue grey) and I started to add some of the shadows under the eaves
and also to create the doors and windows, I will do more detail later as I am
finishing up the painting. I also added the chimney using a sienna color and
purple on the shadowed side.
If you don’t have a dark
blue or purple use the darkest of your cool colors that you have rather than
using black. Black can be too harsh even some of the darker greys are too much
and look unnatural. If you have to use a grey, add some of your dark blue to it
to soften the color.
The pine trees behind
the house were made using a dark grey green. I want a dark color behind the
house so that the white roof will look lighter in contrast to the dark trees
behind it. Find darkest green you have for the trees, you may need to add a
touch of blue to the color if it is too green. You don't want it too green it
should be on the bluish side so test it first before you put it into your
painting.
This is where we stopped
for the day if you are working on the project please try to have your painting
to this point I will continue to work on this the next time we meet so keep
painting and I will see you in class.
