Winter 2017 Pastel Class

Pastel Project - Desert Landscape by Values Weeks 1 & 2

Because I had software problems last time I was unable to edit my photos well enough to post on the blog so this is a combination of weeks one and two.

I started out on a golden brown, sanded, commercial paper, this is one of those preferences that an artist develops over the years, however, if all you have is regular pastel paper that is white or another color that is fine, you do not have to be exactly like mine because there are way too many variables to get close, use what you have the lesson is on using the value system not what paper you use. Just be aware that a lighter color paper or white paper will influence the over all look of the painting so you may have to adjust how you paint to get the results you want. Again, none of the painting in class will look the same so don't sweat the small stuff.

The first week of this painting I worked on the sky, the distant mountains and valley.

Starting in the sky I used a light yellow and white with a slightly darker yellow at the top. This is Arizona, it gets hot there, it was also late afternoon when I took the photo so to convey the feeling of late afternoon heat, I went with the yellow. You can make your sky blue if you want, just be sure to start out very light and the bottom and get just a bit darker towards the top. I lightly blended the sky before I started the first mountain range. 

The most distant range is just about one value darker than the sky. Have your photo and value scale handy as you paint and check it often so you don't get too dark when it should be light. You mind will play tricks on you.

I used a soft light blue gray and white to get the value I wanted on the distant mountain range. The second range is just another value darker than the first so I used a light purple, with a little light blue and white to get the value. The third range was a slightly darker blue/purple with light blue and white to change the value and I blended in between each layer before going to the next.

At the base of the front mountains there are some darker alluvial fans at the very base, they are just slightly darker than what is there.

The valley floor is closer to us so now we start to see a bit of color but it is not the bright colors of the foreground and it is the next value on the scale. You should only be up to the 4th value from white to do this first part of the the painting. If you need to add gray to your browns along with white for a value change, that's what you need to do, you can also use a light blue to help gray the color.

This was week 1.

In week 2 I started the under painting for the foreground. Again, I used the value scale to get colors that were close to the value I wanted.

One thing you can do with the value scale is to put your chalk where the hole is on a value you want, then squint to see if it blends in with the value, this is what I did when choosing my colors, I am at least in the ball park.


Desert plants are usually not bright green but grayed greens or blue greens. I started in the back again using the value scale to find my next color. Even in closer landscapes - or any subject for that matter - you need to work the values and don't trust your eyes, remember: as things go into the distance they become softer and grayer and less intense in color, this is how you show depth.

The color at the back part of the foreground is about 1 or 2 shades darker than the valley behind it. If you have a very soft chalk the color you need, that will work best, though whatever color you use be sure to make an interesting shape across the back with lots of ups and downs and spaces and just make a series of marks leaving some of the background  of the valley show through at the tops of the bushes. I blended very little on these bushes. The shadows at the bottom is also not as dark as you think it is so use a medium charcoal gray or an indigo blue for the shadows and the suggestion of branches and twigs.

Work each layer moving forward the same way getting just a bit darker and a bit more intense in color. You may have to mix colors to get what you need and in the very front of the foreground there are some important dark shadows where I used my dark indigo with a very dark green so when I put the lighter colors of the grasses in top of it they have a glow.



This is my under painting for this painting. Next time we meet I will be making adjustments to what I have, adding the different kinds of cacti and bushes along with highlighting, I might be able to finish it so please try to get your painting to this point if you are following along with the project.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Winter 2017 Pastel Class

Winter 2017 Pastel Class Project: Atmospheric Perspective

Our first project will be one that will help you understand what is called "Atmospheric Perspective". If you are a landscape painter and you are trying to get more distance into your paintings this will be a valuable lesson.

You can use either one of the images below: Either the  wider angle or the cropped one, I will be working from the wider angle, I will also be using a golden, brown sanded paper though you may use any paper you want or is available to you. If you are not working on sanded paper be sure that you have Workable Fixative with you, you will need it as you build up layers. Also, be sure you have your gray scales with you because we will be using them on this project.

I look forward to getting started on the project the next time we meet. See you there.

Picture Page Link: 
https://goo.gl/photos/GBz63Y2k9XDKdDGv7

Fall 2016 Pastel Class Week 7

Fall 2016 Pastel Class Project: Pumpkins on Parade Week 3

Now that I have my pumpkins based in and my light and shadows established, this week I started on detail.

I worked to get the small orange pumpkin a bit more in the shadow and I added the stem using an indigo for the dark and a medium turquoises for the lighter part.

On the fairy pumpkin I added the stem and shadows (the  indigo) and for the stripes I used two oranges a light yellow orange for the parts of the stripes in the light and a deep red orange for the stripes in the shadows. Same with the dots. I lightly blended but not too much.

On the little white pumpkin I was using my light gray chalks for light areas to my indigo for the darker shadows, blending and adding colors when I needed them.

I got started on the other fairly pumpkin which is handled the same as to one on the other side, it is just lighter in color.

On the large orange pumpkin I made the shadows from the blue pumpkin larger but please notice that it is not a nice smooth rounded arch, it is very ragged as it goes over the bumps and dips on the pumpkin's surface. Shadows must follow the texture of the surface they are falling on if they are to look normal.

I looked at my photo for lights and darks, changes in color, changes in direction, anything I thought would make it look alive.

I didn't do much on the blue pumpkin because I wanted to get the other pumpkins up to the same level. I am hoping that next week I can finish up the detail on all the pumpkins so I can do the background and finish this up.

Keep painting and I will see you all in class.

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.