Pastel: Sky, Water, Rocks
I decided to do the project I am doing in the other classes with the sky, water and rocks because it is simple but sometimes those simple lessons teach you the most.
First, I sketched in my design with a black chalk. This is different from how I usually start a painting but I will get to that in a moment. I am working on a piece of mat board that I have treated with ground for pastel to give it a sanded surface.
Once I had the design on I looked for my darkest shadows and used the black chalk to fill them in, then lightly went over the middle values with a light layer of the black, basically skimming the surface of the paper so it wasn't too dark.
Next I took a brush and some alcohol and went over all the black chalk to set the design. This is a basic alcohol wash. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of this part of the painting.
Once the alcohol was dry, then I started adding my color, working from the sky down.
Notice that the sky is lighter than the water though the top is darker than the bottom of the sky and I did use a bit of a burnt orange along the horizon.
The water included not only blues of various values but also lavenders and greens. The foam is under painted with a light purple.
The under painting for the rocks included a dark brown, a middle brown, a gold orange, a light gold and a sienna keeping the lighter colors at the top of the big rocks and in the dry areas of the shore.
I will finish this in our next class. Keep painting.
Pastel Project: Oasis Week 3 and 4
I didn't get the previous week posted last week so this will be a combination of 2 weeks of work. I finished the project in the last class so this will be the last post on this project.
This was where I ended on the 3rd week. I finished putting in most of the rocks, added the trees and started on the water.
The trees I sketched in with my indigo blue mostly to place my trees before filling them in with a dark brown on the dark side and a light gray on the highlight side. I used the indigo for some of the branches and for shadows in the larger parts of the trunk.
Using a harder pastel to draw in the branches makes it a bit easier to get fine lines and when you are painting trees you need a lot of branches not fewer, the need to cross over each other and branch off often otherwise the trees look like the gardener has been there trimming the trees.
The rocks in the water should, for the most part have flat bottoms where they go into the water. These rocks are in the shadows so the water is a darker blue moving around the rocks.
The under painting for the water coming down the center of the rocks goes in and out of the sun so your choice of colors needs to be appropriate to where it represents, for instance the water foam in the sunlight can be white but the foam in the shadows needs to be blues and lavenders so they look cool.
The water for the most part isn't blue but more of a green/gold color and I used the indigo again in the shadows as well as some darker blues.
In the final week I finished adding the water using the gold/green for the darker shades in the water and a gold color for the highlights and lightly blended the colors to suggest rocks under the water. I used white in the sunlit areas for and lithe blues in the shadow areas for foam and sparkles.
The grass I used a dark green with indigo at the base, a medium gold color for the middle part of the grasses and a light tan color for the light ends.
Here is another view of the grasses along the edge of the stream. Be sure that you get the grass down in between the rocks and that they are going in all directions.
The leaves in the trees aren't much more than smudges of color. I used a dark burnt orange for the darker color and a bright yellow for the sunlit leaves and I did add more clumps of leaves than were in the photo so the leaves ant the top connected visually with the rocks below. As an artist you have those options to improve your paintings you are not a slave to your reference material.
This is the final version of the project. I will be starting something new next class but it won't necessarily be a class project. You can finish up on this project if you want or work on your own projects until the end of the semester.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
