Pastel Project: Marsh Madness Week 3
This week I finished up my project by adding detail, checking my values... just all the little things so I can give a preliminary thumbs-up and call it done. I usually live with a finished project for a while before making the final "Yeah, its done." after I have lived with it for a couple of weeks, but for class purposes, I consider this done. You will also have to decide if you are finished and just how much detail you want to put in. Have your reference photo in front of you so you can decide what is important to you and what you want to leave out: A little or a lot, that is up to you and it depends on your own tastes.
To these tree trunks I added texture using my indigo as well as a lavender blue. Light tends to bounce around in the atmosphere especially around water or any other reflective surface, so on the parts of the trunks that were over the water is where I added the lavender.
I also covered parts of the trunks with clumps of leaves and some dead twigs and pulled up some grasses around the base using a medium light blue/green.
I brought in the branch from the top with a dark brown and indigo and I added more defined leaves though they are just marks.
The fine lines are a challenge but if you have a harder pastel it may work better for you. I was using the dark brown for larger twigs but switched to my indigo for smaller ones because it is a harder pastel. A light touch when drawing the twigs also helps.
In the bushes on the right I added the smaller twigs in a similar fashion to the bigger trees and I also added some twigs at the top that are gold and a bit of orange. This is there in the photo and I like the complimentary colors to help break up all the green. I did use touches of the orange in other places around the painting so it wasn't a "unique" color.
In the right corner I added more reflections from the bushes and reeds growing out of the water. Use different colors of green from light to the dark and pull some up over the bottoms of the bushes, this will set them down in the water.
I also added dead branches, some orange leaves and reflections of the branches in the corner.
The dark reflections on the left have weeds, reeds and branches poking out. The grasses and duck weed (the stuff that floats on the top of ponds) I did with the medium blue/green I mentioned before. Against the dark of the reflections it looks very light but I was using that same color in the sun lit areas of the water and it almost disappears.
There are reflections of branches we don't see because they are above the water but not something we painted. Remember to ripple the marks you make to suggest reflections so it looks like water movement.
Bottom line is you will finish this painting the way you need to finish yours, it doesn't need to look like mine. I like color so my paintings tend to be a bit on the vivid side, others like a more subtle color so you will need to learn how to gray your colors, it is all a part of the process of learning so keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Marsh Madness Week 2
This week I was working more on the foreground area and starting on details. Because it is the foreground there is not only more detail but also more and purer colors, meaning less grayed colors. You can see how many more colors I was using below, refer to these for suggestions on what colors you can use on your project.
I have marked the ones I used the first week and the ones I used in the last session, it included not only more and brighter greens but also browns for the trees and blues and purples to use in the shadows.
The first thing I did was to reflect the light down into the water. I used the same light yellow and soft gold that I used the previous week down in the water. Remember: When you are painting water your strokes need to be parallel to the top and bottom of your paper, if you add reflections, you can pull straight down as well as across, this will keep your water looking flat. If your strokes are at an angle, your water will look like it is running down hill.
After I got the light in the water, I added some light holes back into the tree reflection, brightened the reflection of the tops of the background tree line and added more dark colors and some blues under the trees.
When I thought the greens were dark enough - for now - behind the tree trunks, I added in the two lighter trunks with the light tan from this week as well as the dark brown. I didn't draw them on with one continuous chalk mark but with a series of smaller marks that followed the shape of the trunks, this will start the idea of bark on the trees, giving them a rougher texture and I did lightly blend with my color shaper.
Look close and you can see my chalk marks in the trunks of the trees, I will be doing more next time.
Also notice the suggestion of leaves in the trees behind the trunks. This I just made marks that suggested leaves of various colors - medium light greens to cool blue greens because a lot of these leaves are in shadows - I did not blend these shapes so they will stay well defined.
Up in the sky I used a medium blue-green and made the suggestion of leaf shapes. I had the reference photo - the actual scene, not something I did - to see how the leaves grew and hung from the branches. This breaks up the sky (a large negative space) making it more interesting.
Finally, I added the more dominant trunks of the small trees/bushes on the right that are coming out of the water with a dark brown. I will save the other smaller branches until after I've gotten more of the water done so I don't smudge that dark into the light water.
I also used the same blue/green I used previously to suggest the reflections that are under those bushes by pulling straight down and the reflections of the trunks as well.
At the tops of these bushes are a lot of bare twigs, I used the light raw sienna color from this week's colors to make the twigs. I also added some brighter highlights to the top leaves. I will need more but that will be next time.
Try to get your own paintings up to this point if you can so we can start working on finishing this up. Until then, keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Marsh Madness Week 1
On the first day of class I did a demo for the new students on one technique to start a pastel with a watercolor under painting, then adding the ground for pastel over it to make a sanded paper. Please understand this is only one way to start and is by no means the perfect way to start a pastel, it is just one way and you do not need to do this at all.
I was working on mat board but this can be done on any surface that would take watercolor. I decided to do a tonal (shades of gray) watercolor sketch, mixing blue and burnt sienna rather than using black, under painting for this project but this could also have color or could have been charcoal with either a water or alcohol washes to set it before adding the ground for pastel.
When it was dry I applied the ground for pastel using water to help spread the ground as I applied it to the surface. The ground dries relatively clear so you can see your sketch through it. When you are using watercolor, chalk or charcoal with a water or alcohol wash, do not keep going over and over an area with the ground and wet brush because you can smear the sketch. If you are using ink or acrylic it won't hurt the sketch. If you want to do an oil sketch, put the ground for pastel on first with the oil over it because if the oil is on first the ground won't stick because of the oil.
Here are the pastels I have used so far in this painting so you can see the range of the colors. The second from the left is the soft orange I have used in the sky* and background trees to gray them. Do the best you can to mix to these colors as you paint, doesn't have to be perfect, just close.
Using this sketch I did the first week, I use it as a guide. If I see something I missed - which I did - I can make the changes with the pastels as I go. That sketch is not set in stone and as an artist, I have a license to change the things I need to change.
The first area I painted was the sky. Because the sky in the photo was a bit dull, I chose to brighten it by making it a soft yellow and orange mix. If you do not have a soft yellow or orange, you will have to mix some combination of yellow, orange and/or burnt sienna and white to get a reasonable facsimile. Doesn't need to be perfect and if you want to go with a blue or gray sky, that is okay as well.
After I put the sky in I added the background trees. The lower tree line is more on the lime green side so it will have more yellow, the big tree behind them is more on the blue/green side. What they both have is a bit of the soft orange I used in the sky* this slightly grays the color and because they are in the background they will be softer and grayer in color, with less detail.
Note the treeline above where the water will be, it goes from a very dark near the water to light lime at the top and it is softly blended to to bottom. I used the next to light green above with a bit of the orange, the green 2 shades down and the next to the darkest green then blended the colors together.
Next I added the reflection from the big tree in the back and the front treeline as well as some lighter lines in the water that could be debris or the tops of paths just under the water, I'm not sure at this point bit I put them in. I also finished - for now - some minor detail in the back ground trees.
Because the background trees are too far away to see much, if any, detail, all I wanted to do was to "suggest" detail which is mostly highlights. Please study the way different trees grow before adding the detail. Look at the photo, the branches end in rounded clumps: big ones small ones, some connect some by themselves. Down in that dark area by the water, there are some over hanging branches which I used the third lightest green (5th from the left) which is shadow color for the lighter trees but the perfect color for the highlights on the big background tree. These are mere suggestions, you will not see individual leaves.
When I started on the water, I used the darkest green I have. If you do not have a really dark green you may have to mix your darkest green with your darkest blue with a bit of purple and even a bit of your darkest brown. If all else fails, you may have to use black but hold off until you run out of options because black kills color quickly.
Whenever you are painting water you want to keep your strokes parallel to the top and bottom of your paper so the water looks flat. You can make curves and angles using a series of flat strokes which is how I made the waterline and the light areas (the tan color).
Reflections are handled a bit different because there is movement in most water so when I was adding the reflections from the big tree (dark green) and the lighter treeline (lighter green) I pulled the chalk straight down. I blended these areas the same way either with straight across lines or straight down.
The light green in the water is mostly the reflection of the sunlit tops of the the trees next to the water, it is an upside down version of what is above it but instead of using the lightest green I used the middle green color. Reflections are always just a bit darker than what they reflect.
Finally, I got some of the foreground trees and bushes under painted on the left side as well as some of the dark reflections in the water.
You will notice that I have painted around the two lighter tree trunks, this just saves me some time when I start to work on them, the dark tree trunks and branches don't matter because any mixing of color won't really show in the dark.
At the base of the tree and in the water I used my darkest green. Right around the very base of the trunks I also added some of my dark indigo blue to make it appear even darker.
Up into the tree branches I used my next darkest green and then my middle greens, just making shapes and going over some of the background trees. I DID NOT create individual leaves at this time. IF I do create individual leaves I will do it when I am finishing up my painting, right now I am looking for my masses of color and shapes, not detail.
When I had all my colors down I blended my colors together, remembering what I was blending and where I was blending: Water - straight across or straight down; Trees - rounded or scumbling strokes to suggest clumps and texture in the leaves.
This is where we left off, do your best to get your painting as close to this as you can.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
