Winter 2020 Pastel Class

Project: Desert Refuge Week 3

Last week we got started on this project with a watercolor under painting before adding the mountain and the distant desert. We started the trees which is where I picked up in our last class.

I like to bring up all sections of my panting at the same time, so once I had the trees based in, I moved on to the levee and the water.


The levee was a combination of 3 colors: a medium umber type color, a lighter tan and a very light tan. I mostly blended with the chalk so it had some texture with very little blending with finger or stub. I was very aware of the angle of the dirt that forms the levee so all of my strokes are at a slight angle.

The water also has 3 different colors: a medium ultramarine blue, a light turquoise and a soft gray blue near the levee.  I applied the different blues in vertical strokes and lightly blended first with the colors then lightly with my finger.

Next I added the reeds in the water and started the reflections. The reeds are a medium dark green.

To the reeds I also added some of the gold color I used in the background reeds and a burnt sienna color for the tops. Yes, in the photo the tops are a yellowish color but it was very hard to distinguish between the background reed and the top of the foreground reeds so I used my artistic license. 

I worked a bit more on the reflections, getting the shapes better, adding color. The key thing to remember when doing reflections is to add your color straight down the smear lightly across. The water is moving so there won't be a sharp reflection.

 I also worked some more on the trees adding shadows, trunks and branches. The trunks were done in an indigo blue type color.

Same on the other side. I also used the indigo as a shadow color where the dirt meets the water.

The top of the levee where the path is was a light blue gray.

This is where I left off. I will probably finish this up next class. I still have some things to do but I don't think it will take me all class.

If you are finished with your project bring in something else to get started on or if you are still working on this project take as long as you need to finish up.



Until then, keep painting and I will see you in class.