Pastel Project: Pink Umbrella Week 4 Final
In the last class, I finished up my version of Pink Umbrella working mostly in the foreground adding flowers and the woman.
I was using - where I could - my softest and brightest colors for the flowers. I did have to go over the yellow several times to get the right brightness and used a couple different chalks to find a softest, I was also looking to find places that were dark to add the brighter colors over some of those areas. It is always a good move to use contrast (light against dark) to bring impact to your painting. I used a light warm tan color to add the suggestion of rocks and pebbles into the dirt path areas as well. I left these strokes alone, I didn't blend the flowers.
As you can see in this close-up of the woman, there is no real detail, just suggestions. I used white for the sunlit parts of her dress, a very light lavender blue and indigo for light shadows and deeper shadows, respectively, I also used the indigo for her hair color as well.
The umbrella and purse were 2 colors of a cool pink almost to the purple side and white to make it softer. The hat was the warm tan I used above and indigo for the ribbon around it.
Her face and hand holding the umbrella is a soft cool brown the sunlit had is the warm tan and cool brown blended together.
I did some light blending with my color shaper on the dress, hat, umbrella and purse.
Notice how I created the distance between the woman and the background using softer, grayer colors and soft edges in the background and used brighter more colorful colors with detail in the foreground that almost give a 3D aspect to the painting.
This is the final week I will be working on this painting, I have fun doing it. Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Pink Umbrella Week 3
This last class I was working my way down my painting trying to finish what was above so I didn't mess up what was below where I was working.
I added the suggestion of rocks and dirt a few lighter highlights to the bushes but I kept things as muted as I could because this is in the distance and I needed it to look like it was far away using an indigo but smudging it with my color shaper to soften the color. No real dark shadows, no bright highlights all the while suggesting light and shadow to show contours. A balancing act to be sure.
On the middle ridge I added brighter colors and more of a suggestion of rocks and bushes. The shadows were a bit darker - I was using an indigo color and lightly touching it with my color shaper to soften the color - and a soft blue green for shadows under the bushes.
I strengthened the color of the poppies with a Indian yellow for lighter areas and a red orange for shadowed areas. The yellow for the mustard was a bright yellow green, not a true yellow.
I want you to notice something in this image: notice how now that you can see the darker foreground against the middle ridge, that middle ridge has been pushed back visually because I kept the colors softer and grayer and less detail.
Now that I was working in the foreground my colors become darker and more colorful. I started by adding paths and patches of dirt then doing a darker under painting for the bushes. I have not done anything to the lady yet but notice how she stands out against the middle ground because I have enough value and intensity of color behind her.
When you are painting the bushes, be sure to add variety of size and shape, have them over lap plants behind them and don't line them up like someone has planted them there you want to break up the dirt and paths so you don't have stripes going across your paper.
I just got started on the foreground in class so I have some more work to do but I may finish this in our next class.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Project: Pink Umbrella Week 2
Last week I did an under painting in watercolor then covered it with the ground for Pastel which, unfortunately, messed up my values. Before I started working on the pastel part of my painting in class I went in with my dark grey and black pastels to redo my values then set them with alcohol. I only needed to do the lower 2/3's the distant part could be light.
I used 3 different oranges. For the shadowed side of the hills the orange was closer to a light burnt sienna, a middle value orange and a light orange or Indian yellow-orange for the tops of the hills.
There were 2 greens and a gray blue for the green pars of the hill as well as a grayed lavender for the patches of purple flowers on the hillside. The rock and dirt areas were a very light tan, a bit darker redder tan and a medium dark brown with some medium dark grayed blue (indigo) for the shadows and cracks.
The important part isn't the colors as much as it in the direction you apply and blend the colors. Remember to follow the shape of the thing you are painting. If it is rounded your strokes need to be curved around the the object. If it is angled, you need to follow the angle ad you put on chalk or when you blend. The human eye picks up on the subtleties and your painting can look flat regardless of what you do and this applies to all mediums.
I put on the colors starting with the oranges first, then blended the colors with my fingers or with a color shaper for smaller areas then added the greens and lavenders, blended those color and lightly blended where they touched the orange. Finally I added the rocks and dirt. the redder tan was for general rock/dirt color the light tan was for highlights. The darker brown and indigo were for shadows and cracks and I only lightly blended the dirt and rocks with the color shaper where I felt it necessary, mostly to get rid of a hard line, these things are in the distance so there won't be and hard lines.
That is as far as I got in class last time so I will pick up where I left off when we meet again. Keep painting.
Project: Pink Umbrella Week 1
Over the break I was able to go out to the Super Bloom in Temecula which was pretty amazing and I am pretty sure we will be doing more from my trip over time but when this woman with her white dress and her pink umbrella was walking across the top of this hill with the flower painted mountains in the back ground I knew what we were going to paint this semester, this was almost perfect.
I also decided to try something that I saw demonstrated at the Pastel Society and thought is was a great idea for doing pastels. I mounted a sheet of watercolor paper on a foam core presentation board with spray glue. This gives a support while you are painting then can be cut down when you want to frame your finished painting.
I also did a watercolor tonal painting using shades of gray to establish my scene before I added the ground for pastel over the top. I didn't do this as an official demo because I am experimenting with some of this and I don't want you to feel like you need to follow me down the rabbit hole for this part but I do want you to know what I did so you don't feel like I've left you behind.
This is about the 2 times through adding gray to build up the values of my under painting. One thing I discovered was that the bright oranges behind the woman were much deeper in value than you would expect which is why having a value scale can help you sort out what is going on in your picture.
I added several more layers of wash to build up the values especially in the foreground and I could probably use some more value in the distance but I can do that with my pastels but this does establish some distance.
Like I said, I was experimenting and we all learn from our mistakes. When I went to put the ground for pastel over the watercolor it kinda mushed the colors together so I may try to reestablish my values again before I start with my pastels though there is still enough left that I can just start with the chalks if I feel lazy.
Have what you are going to do ready for class and i will be getting started on this pastel in our next class. See you there.
