Spring 2018 Pastel Class

Spring 2018 Pastel Project: Magnolia Week 1

Pastel works up fast for me and I often forget to take photos of the steps before moving on as in this case, I forgot to take a photo of the background before I started working on the fun stuff.

I think we are all guilty of that at times because the background seems so blah compared to the subject that drew you into painting it in the first place but in reality, that blah background played a very important part in choosing the subject to begin with. This flower would not have caught my attention when I took the photo if there had been a bunch of leaves and other flowers fighting for my attention, I know because I have a magnolia in my front yard and rarely see a flower I want to break out my 300mm lens for, This is a different variety of magnolia from the one I have and it loses all of its leaves so in the spring it just has the flowers and I loved the way it was reaching out to me and with an out of focus background even a 2 dimensional image seems to have a third dimension to it.

Bottom line, the background is important. However, by itself the background wouldn't be too interesting, what makes it interesting is how the flower and the branches break up the background into interesting, irregular shapes. These soft out of focus backgrounds work great in all kinds of subject matter and often time are a better choice than what you might have in a photo you are working on.

I am working on black poster board that I have treated with Golden's Ground for Pastel to make it into sanded paper, you can work on any color paper sanded or not, I just like to work on a sanded surface because it has more tooth and I don't have to spray it.

To create that soft background I used all kinds of colors from browns and blues to green, red, yellow and orange. I usually put down all my colors first then I start blending with my fingers to soften the colors together. I will probably have to come back in near the end to fill in gaps between branches and the background, but this is where I started. BTW, I could have waited until I had the branches and flower in but I didn't want the colors to drop down over my white flower.

I next found a warm grey to base in the lighter parts of my branches and indigo for the shadows. There are golds, greens and a red/brown for the new growth and buds.

The important thing to remember is to follow the shape of the thing you are painting so rather than doing a branch in one smooth stroke, I did a series of small rounded strokes over the top and sides of the branch, it gives it a rougher look. I have not blended this yet.

I under painted the petals of the flower with a medium light lavender and a darker lavender where I have shadows. I have not put in the center yet that will come later.

While it seems strange to start with blues and purples when you are painting a white flower, you do need to have someplace to go with your values, white on white is just white.
At the end of class one of my students was unclear on the purpose of starting the white flower with these darker colors so rather than trying to explain it again because words can fail, I just showed her with just some quick strokes how the highlighting on this lavender color is going to make the flower pop.

I also want to point out that I applied the pastel to the curves of the petals and I did blend them as well again following the curves of the petals.

Try to get your own paintings up to this level if you can and I will continue working on mine defining and detailing the flower and branches.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.