Fall 2016 Pastel Class

Pastel Class Project: Pumpkins on Parade Week 2

I have gotten all my pumpkins based in and now I am starting to flesh them out. I need to avoid trying to finish one, like the blue pumpkin, because it is fun and interesting, while leaving the rest because my finished painting could look overworked in some places and under worked in others. Try to bring all parts of your painting up together.

The dust from the chalk is creating that light area in the foreground, I will deal with that later.

I added some turquoise greens to the blue part of the pumpkin and I also added more of the texture. Please notice that the texture is more like scribbles though they do follow the curve of the pumpkin.

The stem was based in using a light gray and a medium gray.

 With the base color for the other pumpkins in I then went into deepening the shadows and defining the shapes better. The details will come later, worry more about shapes and angles at this point.

The same holds true for the other small pumpkins at this point: get the base color and the shadows going first, then add the detail.

Note that the foreground pumpkin is a soft light yellow and the one in the back is soft greys and blues.

Each segment of the pumpkin has it's own curves and texture be sure to look before you start adding color so you know what your are painting.

I was using an indigo color for my darker shadows on my pumpkins.







I will continue on this painting, I hope that if you are following along you are having as much fun as I am. Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2016 Pastel Class Week 5

Pumpkins on Parade - Week 1

Pastels work up surprisingly fast for me, yes, this is only the first week I have managed to get all of my pumpkins under painted and started on some of the detail. I am working on a black sanded piece of mat board.

The orange pumpkins are mostly done at this point with a warm mid tone burnt sienna in the lighter areas working to a darker sienna and finally to dark brown and indigo with even a touch of a dark purple in the shadows. Once I had my colors down I blended from the light to the dark to smooth and blend my colors.

The lighter pumpkins were handled much the same way, finding lighter and shadow colors that matched the base color of the pumpkins (worry about the detail later) then blending once I had the colors down. Always be aware of the curves of the  surface of these pumpkins and follow them with your chalk and when blending.

The blue one was a bit different in that my under painting for the blue was shades of blue all the way across the pumpkin as if the bumps didn't exist. I used various shades of blue and to dull the blue I added very lightly soft siennas and blended to get closer to the color. 

Once I had that base color for the blue pumpkin in, I used several shades of brown from a light tan for the lighter areas to a dark brown and also my indigo blue in the shadow areas. I scribbled this on the pumpkin but I followed the curves with my chalk so it looks like it is a part of the  pumpkin. The lightest color is a soft orange color.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2016 Pastel Class Week 2

FALL 2016 PASTEL CLASS PROJECT: Windblown Week 2

This project worked up rather quickly and this is the final session for this particular project I am thinking we will have another project this semester and will start it in about 2 weeks.

This week what I did was to work on the foreground tree because it is closer it gets a bit more detail than the tree in the back. I used various shades of gray to charcoal to create the shading on my tree and I used a soft cream color for the highlights in my tree.

The trickiest part of doing this tree are the fine branches because you really need to learn how to find an edge on your pastels and to lighten the pressure enough to get the fine lines. You need to get quite a few of these finer limbs and twigs and branches to make the tree look more realistic you want to break up the negative space and that is the space you see between the branches. If those spaces you see are large and open it doesn't look complete so you need to add enough branches to break up those negative spaces to create this windblown tree.

For the grasses I used grey and my light lavender and a little bit darker lavender, I also wanted to be sure that I made the grasses lean over as well because this is supposed to be a windy situation and you create that sense of wind and direction of wind by the way the trees and the grasses are bent so don't have a tree leaning over and your grass is standing straight it will send conflicting information to your viewer.

Finish this up to your own liking and in the colors that you want to use and if you think you are going to be finished with this for next class you might want to bring something to work on, the following week I should have a new project ready to go so keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2016 Pastel Class Week 1

Pastel Class Project: Windblown Week 1

This project probably won’t take more than a couple of weeks so I may have a second project for the semester or you may work on your own project if you wish.

One thing I like about this project is you can change the whole mood of the painting just by changing the color. The test piece I did in watercolor was done in warm tones giving the  final piece the feeling of hot, dry scorching wind that these trees are struggling against. The pastel I started in class I am going with a different color scheme using mostly shades of gray and a couple of soft lavender colors giving it a spooky, windy night kind of feel and I will do the projects in my other classes in other colors as well.

This is an important thing for you as an artist to understand and explore. I took a photo of the trees down at Veteran’s Park and used them as reference to create my own version of the trees. I didn’t want all those apartments in the back or the trash cans or benches, the trees were the story, why spoil that with all that non-stuff around them?

I have seen many of my students bring in a photo with an interesting subject like a pet or child or flower that would have been wonderful if they had been the main focus of the painting, instead the artists got so involved in recreating the photo verbatim, that the subject got lost in the confusion. Just because there is a block wall behind that rose you took a picture of doesn’t mean that you need to include the block wall, that wall is irrelevant it could be sky or shades of green or just some simple background that will let your rose shine as the star. Think about this the next time you are looking at your photos, see what is important, what draws you to the image and what you can use from it and what you can leave out, this is called “simplifying” an all artists need to learn how to do it.

Starting my pastel I was using a gray, sanded board that I made using Golden’s Acrylic Ground for Pastel. The proportions for the drawing for this project is twice as long as it is high though mine will be a bit shorter than those proportions but it is still a long format, this gives the final project the feel of being stretched out.

I lightly sketched in the ground line a little more than a third of the way up from the bottom, it does not need to be a nice flat line because this is ground it can be a bit wavy and I am going to suggest weed and grass on there as well just suggest the line. There is also another line for the foreground about half that bottom ground, again it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Starting about a third the way over from the right side of the board, I started with my lightest color which was a very light lavender, forming a 3/4 circle with the ground being the stopping point with this light color.

Next I found a lavender color that was just a couple shades darker than my light color and put a band of this color about an inch think around the top of the light color (I will blend when I get all my colors on the board). After that I found a light gray about the same value as the lavender I just used to do the next band, then a darker gray for the next band across my board until I had all of that top part filled in.

Moving down to the ground, use that first light gray to define the top edge of each level but let it taper off towards the left side. These will be smaller bands just like the top, get darker with each band until you run out of room. You may not be able to get to all the darker colors near where the trees are going to be but you should have a darker gray behind the foreground band so the lighter color will show.

I then blended my bands of color starting in the lightest color and working my way out so I had a nice smooth transition from the light to the dark. You may need to add and adjust after you get things blended just remember to clean your fingers before you start in the light color and work out.

The background tree was drawn in with the second lavender I was using. It is dark enough to show against the light and light enough to show against the dark but not so dark that it will compete with the foreground tree when we put it in.

When you are doing branches and twigs, it is better to put in more not less. This has to do with negative space and breaking up the shapes you are creating so those negative spaces do not draw attention. I also used the same color to suggest windblown grasses along that ridge.

I did start to sketch in my foreground tree and dusted out some of the chalk in the trunk so it will be easier to fill in next time.

I will probably finish this or be close to finishing by end of class next week so if you are doing the project you might want to get caught up to this point.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

SUMMER 2016 PASTEL CLASS Project: Working the Steps Week 3

Last week I got most of my underpainting done this week I worked on detail looking at my photograph and my watercolor I looked for the cracks and the structure of the rocks and cliffs as well as the colors.

I have several colors I love to use when I'm working in shadows one is an indigo blue the others are several shades of soft lavenders ranging from a dark lavender to a lighter lavender. When you are working in shadows you must use blues and purples because shadows are cool and the blues and purples are your natural shadow colors learning to add these to your shadows will create some very interesting and realistic shadows in your paintings.

I also worked on my water I created some small waves coming in by using a darker color for the front of the wave and a lighter color for the top and back side of the wave. For the foam I used my light lavender to create the underpainting for the foam so that when I put white on the tops it would show. Be careful when you are doing the foam on the front parts of the wave they need to change direction they go from flat water to a curve of the wave this will give your wave structure.

In the dark rocks that are in the water I used my Indigo and some gray and some darker Browns to create the idea of shapes in those dark areas I also did this on the backside of the peak and in other places where I had some very dark areas that creates a little sense of light and structure to those dark crevices and holes that are part of the cliff.

I used a golden ochre color for the sand that is eroded in the front corner as well as some darker colors and my indigo's for the shadows I suggested the little rocks at the base using various shades of grey, also some lavenders and blues. These are just marks they are not individual rocks they have highlights they have shadows but all they are is  just smudges; just lines and dashes and shapes... I lightly blended them with my finger when I was done because I wanted them to be there but not draw attention away from the cliffs.

I only used a little bit of white were I absolutely needed it on those dark rocks along the bottom of the cliffs and the wet rocks near the water. The other highlights were soft greys and blues for the water and rocks and light ochers and some lavenders for some of the cliff rock highlights.

I believe I am done with this painting so I will be letting you either finish up your class project or you can start working on your own painting and I will come around and help as needed as well as demos where needed as well. I do suggest that you try to work the steps by doing sketches and value studies before you work on your final project because it really does help you understand the subject better when color isn’t involved.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

SUMMER 2016 PASTEL CLASS – Project: Working the Steps Week 2

I wanted to show one more way to start a painting, and it is by no means the last way, just one of many, but as a teacher I want to show you as many things as I can so you won’t be afraid to try new things, this time I did a charcoal sketch and use alcohol to set it into my sanded board.

I made my own sanded board from a piece of mat board and using Golden’s Ground for Pastel to create the sanded surface. I showed this step in class the previous week only this time I put the ground on the white gessoed surface without any color for this demo.

 

I just used my black chalk on a white sanded board.

To put my sketch on and some of the darkest areas of my design, I used my black chalk or you can use charcoal, to get my design on my board. When I was happy with the design, I put some alcohol in a small container and with a brush, started washing the black into the board. Do not get too much alcohol on your brush or you will have problems, you just want enough to work the chalk in, not run down your paper.

In areas I wanted to have lighter tones, I just used what was on my brush that I picked up in the dark areas. Keep a paper towel handy so you can wipe off excess charcoal and/or alcohol off your brush as you work.

Once I had roughed in my values with the black and alcohol, I let it dry before I started adding color. Just a note here: sometimes this roughed in sketch looks really good and you might not want to cover it with color which is perfectly okay. You can either do another or save the one you like best as a black and white or take a picture before you add color so you have a record of what you did for future reference.

I used alcohol to get this value underpainting.

You can also do this in color with the alcohol or water. You can use watercolor or oil for the under painting, I even read an article where the artist did her value study first, then put a clear acrylic varnish over it to set it in, though the ground for pastel is transparent so you could also use that if you wanted to. So many options, you get to find the one you like best.

After the sketch was dry I started adding color onto my board. You values are there already; you just need to flesh them out with your colors.

 

Same board with the value underpainting but with color added.
 I am still working on this.

Many of you worked at home and did the finished painting at home and just added the final touches in class, so next time you will need to bring in something you want to work on and I do encourage that you work the steps from sketch to value study to final project or you can try this one again, taking what you learned and seeing if you can improve on your first. I will be there to help you along the way whatever you decide to do.

I do hope that showing you how to do a value study has helped show you how values work in a painting and I hope that you will continue to use the technique to increase your understanding of values because it will make your paintings much more dynamic in the long run.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Pastel Class Summer 2016: Working the Steps – Pastel Week 1

This class project is to give you some insight into how you can become a better painter and to create better work habits. The best artists have their own methods but they are very similar in that they will collect reference material, do sketches, values and color studies, take photos and notes plus anything else to prepare themselves to get down to the final painting. A good painting doesn’t just pop out of the end of a brush or a piece of chalk, it is the accumulation of knowledge and study.

I usually provide a photo and a drawing for the class so we can get started on a painting. Students are hungry to get into the “meat” of the project but they rarely are interested in the “bones”. What I present in class has taken many hours of looking through images of my own or from things I have clipped out of papers and magazines or search out on the Internet, and that is just the beginning.

Once I have my reference material I then have to come up with a design for my classes. If I am using one of my photos I may just do an outline of what I already have for the project but if I am working from some other source or maybe my reference isn’t all that exciting and needs to have other elements included, I need to do what is called a “Composite” that is the final design is made from more than one source of reference material.

If I am doing a composite, I may have 2 or more reference photos that I am working to put together to create my final design and this takes time. I may do several simple pencil sketches – some looking more like stick figures than a drawing – and then I sometimes will do a detailed pencil drawing to see how everything looks together and/or I may make a preliminary line drawing and do a small study in watercolor of acrylic. Still, nothing is set in stone at this point. If I am not satisfied with my results it is literally back to the drawing board.

By the time I get into class I am very familiar with my subject then I paint it again 4 times. Sometimes I do get tired of the subject but each time I do the paintings in class I learn something especially how the subject works in the different mediums, you are always learning when you paint so get out of the notion that you do one masterpiece then move on to the next, it just doesn’t work like that for most artists.

This project is from a plein air class I have been taking. You will notice that there is a big difference between the photo I took and the study I did. Photographs have their limitations and if you are going to work from them, you are going to need to understand these limitations. First off, photos do not give you the exact colors that were actually there. The human eye sees a lot more color that any camera can so the colors which are in my watercolor are more accurate than what you see in the photo because of the limitations of the camera and this goes for all cameras no matter the expense.

When you are working from these photos, it is best to use the real image to work out your drawing and my watercolor to suggest what colors to use in your painting.

I started with a sketch I did on the top part of my paper that worked into a value sketch using black, white and gray. Value is more important than the color so I want to get it correct before working on my final painting. This is where having a value scale is handy especially when you are learning. Most art stores should have them or you can make your own using ink and water on white paper.

You do not need to do detail but you do need to see the different values, squinting will help when looking for values.

I next did a color study trying to correct anything I wasn’t 100% on in the value study – I had the horizon too high – and I got most of it based in by the end of class. I did this on the same paper as the value study so I had 3 reference things to look at as I was doing the color study, while not necessary to have them on the same paper, it was handy.

There are times when I get home when I look at what I have done so I can write up the blog I see things I am not happy with, case in point: I do not like the design of the color study so when I come in next week I will have something, I hope, will be closer to what I want and on a sanded board.

We may have time to do another project and this time you will have the choice of doing your own or another one I provide, either way, I want you to try and work the steps, if you will be working on your own project, get good reference material and work on sketches, I can help and answer questions in class.

We covered a lot of ground, do the best you can but keep painting and I will see you in class.