Summer 2019 Pastel Class

Project: Apple Turnover Revisited Week 3

I started this week by finishing the background around the basket and table. I wanted it to look like out of focus bushes so that the back ground didn't distract from the subject.

I used 4 different colors: 3 greens - a dark, a medium and a light green - and my dark indigo blue which is a dark gray/blue color as opposed to a bright blue. If you only have a bright blue, add some dark brown as well.

The first thing I did was to add the dark green and blue together. When adding the colors or when you are blending, you aren't trying to create leaves as such, you are just trying to get the feel or suggestion of leaves. Look at the reference photo to see where the patches of shadow are in the back ground, that was roughly my guide. Next add the medium green into all the empty spots that are left and when you finish with that, in spots add some of the brighter, lighter green and, again, look at the photo to find the lightest areas. 

Only after I have all my color down do I blend the colors usually starting in the lighter area and working to the darker areas. If I need to add some color to make it lighter or darker you can do that as you blend, just be sure to lightly blend the different areas together some so thee are no hard lines or distinct shapes, at least not yet.

Next I worked on the table. I need to get the table close to finished so I can start working on the basket and apples.

First I wanted to be sure that the under painting for the table had enough dark colors so that highlights would show up. In pastel, we work mostly from dark to light and I felt my table needed more darks and more color. I added some darker blues, greens and reds by streaking it on then lightly blending so you could still see the streaks but they had soft edges.

When I had the under painting where I thought it should be, I added tome lighter streaks for the grain of the wood using a peach, a light blue and a light gray.

I had realized when doing the acrylic version on Monday that I needed to add some lines for the slats of the table so the table would make sense to me, I used my indigo blue to suggest the different slats of the table to see if I was liking what was happening and when I did that, I could see I was headed in the right direction. The lines may need to be redrawn because I don't think I got the spacing right and I still have a bit of work to do but having them in there right now isn't going to hurt anything.

We had several people playing catch-up in the last class so this is where we ended the class.

I hope that you can get your own painting to this point before next class so we can move on and start getting into some of the detail.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.