Summer 2018 Week 1

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.