Winter 2018 Pastel Class Week 2

Pastel Project - Desert Oasis Week 2

I didn't get a lot further than I was last week because people realized that I was starting the project so I back peddled a bit. I went over how I did the sky and the background mountain then did a demo on the foreground rocks.

 To give rocks form, like everything else, you need highlights, mid tones and shadows but because rocks can be all kinds of odd shapes you really need to look at the rock you are painting and see where the values change because some of those changes can be subtle.

The rock in the back is a basically round rock but weather and tumbling down the creek bed have faceted it so it has both rounded and flat surfaces. Color is not as important here as the value change.

All the rocks need the same treatment no matter what their shape, size or color.

Any object that has one side in deep shadow, especially around any body of water, needs to have some texture in those shadows. Remember that a camera's abilities are limited and while in a photo the shadows may look black, if you were there in person you would see that the shadows were a deep blue/purple and you would be able to see detail in the shadows. As an artist you need to put back in what the photo took out if you want things in the shadows to look more natural. If there is water around the object - in this case the rocks - the water can bounce light back into the shadows, remember this for the future as well.

On my painting I am also using the contrast rule where ever I can to play light against dark like the little rocks against the big dark rock.

Have the reference photo where you can see it and refer to it often to guide you but don't be afraid to add or move rocks where you feel it is needed.

I will wait to put the grasses in when I get my rocks and water more finished, remember that right now I am just basing in my painting nothing is even close to finished yet, I want to bring it all up at the same time so I don't overwork one area and under work the rest.




I hope that you can get caught up with the painting and we will continue in our next class. keep painting and I will see you in class.