Spring 2019 Pastel Class

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.