Fall 2018 Pastel Class

Pastel Project: Dancing Boots Week 2

I finished my painting in the last class. I started with the cactus though I added the spikes at the end.

I made sure that my darks and lights were where I wanted them then with a soft, warm gray I added the little nodes to the ridges where the spikes come out from. Look at the reference photo the spines were 2 shades of a dusty pink but I waited until I had the background in first in case I had to clean up edges.

The back ground had several colors in it from a warm rich sienna, to a gray tan with soft yellow, to the dark shadows which I used my indigo color. The pebbles were just quick shapes and marks of various colors, just be sure that your marks are different, sizes, shapes and you don't like them up like fence posts or a heard of turtles. I blended the ground and shadows before adding the rocks.

The flowers also had several colors in them: A soft light yellow, a light orange, a darker red orange and pink. The dead flowers around the open flowers were a dark warn brown.

I continued adding highlights and shadows to my boots until I got the look I wanted then I added detail. You don't need to add the detail unless you want to just be sure that you look at the photo to see that the seams follow the curves and dips that are in the folds of the leather, they are not straight. 

The soles of the boots were a light gray and black.

Look at the photo to see how the shadows from the boots fall on the ground, the toes are curved up and the shape of the shadow is important to create the illusion of that curve.

This is the finished painting though I usually live with it for a while before making a final decision on whether it is done or not,but at this point I needed to stop fiddling and will look at it over the course of the next couple of weeks to see if anything jumps out at me, basically mine is done.

You can continue to work on this project if you still need to finish up, if you have finished, you will need to find something of your own you want to paint and I will be around to help if needed.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.