Winter 2018 Pastel Class

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.