Pastel Project - Desert Oasis Week 2
I didn't get a lot further than I was last week because people realized that I was starting the project so I back peddled a bit. I went over how I did the sky and the background mountain then did a demo on the foreground rocks.
To give rocks form, like everything else, you need highlights, mid tones and shadows but because rocks can be all kinds of odd shapes you really need to look at the rock you are painting and see where the values change because some of those changes can be subtle.
The rock in the back is a basically round rock but weather and tumbling down the creek bed have faceted it so it has both rounded and flat surfaces. Color is not as important here as the value change.
All the rocks need the same treatment no matter what their shape, size or color.
Any object that has one side in deep shadow, especially around any body of water, needs to have some texture in those shadows. Remember that a camera's abilities are limited and while in a photo the shadows may look black, if you were there in person you would see that the shadows were a deep blue/purple and you would be able to see detail in the shadows. As an artist you need to put back in what the photo took out if you want things in the shadows to look more natural. If there is water around the object - in this case the rocks - the water can bounce light back into the shadows, remember this for the future as well.
On my painting I am also using the contrast rule where ever I can to play light against dark like the little rocks against the big dark rock.
Have the reference photo where you can see it and refer to it often to guide you but don't be afraid to add or move rocks where you feel it is needed.
I will wait to put the grasses in when I get my rocks and water more finished, remember that right now I am just basing in my painting nothing is even close to finished yet, I want to bring it all up at the same time so I don't overwork one area and under work the rest.
I hope that you can get caught up with the painting and we will continue in our next class. keep painting and I will see you in class.
Class Project: Desert Oasis Week 1
I really hadn't planned to get started on the project the first week since I usually have at least a couple new students to go over supplies with but my new students didn't show up and I decided to go ahead and start.
I am working on a sheet of sanded black paper that I am reclaiming. It was a sheet of paper that had a painting started on it when the previous owner passed away and I inherited it. Rather than throw away a sheet of sanded paper, I took a stiff brush and dusted off as much of the pastel that was on the paper as I could, it didn't all come off but most of it did and doesn't seem to bother what I am putting over top of it. Good thing to know.
The paper got scratched in transit so I just made the area I will be working in smaller (12 x 16) by using masking tape as a boarder but I left the other part of the paper attached so I could test the chalks before applying them. It is always a good idea to have a piece of similar colored paper handy to test colors, it will save you time n the long run.
I have not created a template for this painting, I just sketched the design on my paper free hand with a light blue pastel. The blue won't cause problems as I paint and the light color on the black paper lets me see my design so I know where I'm going.
Here you can see the lines from the sketch as well as how far I got in class.
The sky was first. Starting at the bottom and working my way up, I used 3 different colors of blue: A light blue violet, a middle value blue, then finally a middle dark value blue. I can only give general colors and values because everyone's colors are different.
I waited to blend my colors until I had all 3 blues applied. I usually start in the light color first then work my way into the darker colors. I usually blend large areas with my fingers moving them in not only a circular motion but also up and down as I mix the different values together to create a smooth transition between the values.
The mountain in the background posed a bit of a problem because there is a mix of dirt, rocks, cliffs, bushes along with shadow areas.
I was playing around with colors until I got something I thought was close to the dirt color a mix of a medium gray/brown, lavender and a medium grey then blending them together. In the shadow areas I have an indigo blue that I worked into that previous mix.
I saved most of the larger areas that had cliffs or large outcroppings of rocks so I could get a purer color and used several different colors. There were 2 or 3 light warm tans and a couple of lighter grays to make the rocks and cliffs. Please note that these are just quick shapes with the chalk - dashes and dots if you will - I did not do much if any blending of these areas so they kept their rugged good looks. Follow the direction of the rocks so you don't just make vertical or horizontal strokes, some go at angles, some are wide some are small some are broken...The more shapes and angles you have the more natural it will look.
Once I had the distant mountain more or less the way I want - at least for now - I started putting in the closer rocks and boulders. The bright areas are my lightest and warmest tans and some light gray, the shadows that I just got started on have indigo, a dark brown and the medium light blue/violet I used in the sky. All shadows need blues and violets to make them look natural.
These are just roughed in at this point, I won't do any finishing until I get the rest of the rocks and water also roughed in and this is where I stopped for the day.
If you are going to be working on the project and weren't in class or not prepared to work don't worry, I will catch you up in the next class. So keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Class Project: Summer Fun Week 3
This week was all about finishing up this project and one of the things I needed to figure out was how to tie the bottom of the painting with the top. What I came up with was to bring some of the same colors I used in the sky area up through the sand and even into the water.
I highlighted the tops of the track ruts and added shadows to the sides to give the tracks some depth but I also brought some of the sky color up into the tracks as well.
Using my indigo color (dark blue gray) I added some darker detail where boards crossed or had one on top of the other or on the sides of the rails or under things. Shadows are always their darkest right under the thing that is casting the shadow, use that to your advantage.
Still using the indigo I suggested roof tiles making little short, choppy strokes. I also added the cables that pull up the window awnings and lined the window frames. If you want you can add the Ave C to the tower but please look at the photo first to see placement.
Overall, I am pleased with what I did with this painting. Is it something I will have a steady diet of? No, but I learned a lot and the whole point of this lesson is to not be afraid to take chances and experiment and that is what you as an artist need to understand: No one dies because something didn't work out and you never know, you might end up doing something you really like.
I am done with this project and if you are as well, you will need to bring something of your own to work on, we have about 3 weeks until class ends, not enough time to do a second project but enough time for you to get started on your own.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Summer Fun Week 2
This week I now that I have the lifeguard tower in, I want to tweak the tower and background and start working on some of the detail. I probably have one more session on this before I call it done but it is getting close.
Starting in the background, I thought that my chalk hadn't covered as well as I would have liked so I took the same colors and went over the areas again but this time I didn't blend them together. I liked the texture I got from the rough surface. I also went into the other colors more to give it an aurora feel to it. Don't be afraid to experiment, not everything needs to be blended or perfect.
The tower was done with several similar colors of different values. The dark areas were a dark teal color and an indigo blue the lighter areas a lighter teal and lighter blue. If you need to add white to lighten, that is okay. I blended these colors and went over them again to get the darkness or lightness I wanted. The windows are not white they are 2 shades of gray. the lighter one for the side windows and the darker one for the back window. Remember they are in shade. The sign on the back of the tower was just a different blue and a few marks made with gray and a red to make it look like words, you literally do not need to spell out anything on that sign, just make marks.
The flag is really simple and again, you are not going to be making a flag with 50 stars but the suggestion of the flag blowing in the wind. Just know that the top and bottom stripes are red, the stripe at the bottom of the blue field is white, just suggest the flag.
The shadow under the tower is very important because it sets the tower down in the sand. Look at the shadow in the original photo of the tower, see how there are areas of light going between parts of the tower and show on the sand? Also, notice that the shadow doesn't have nice straight lines. That is because the sand is uneven and shadows follow the surface they fall on. I used my indigo (dark gray/blue) and my dark lavender blue to base in the shadow then blended the colors together. Because this is a shadow it needs to be cool which is why I used the blues, there is also the sand color that was originally there that also blended into the shadow. Once blended, I took the indigo again and made some darker marks to indicate uneven sand and I lighter softer tan for the highlights on the sand.
Finally I started working on the sand itself. First I put in the orange float which is a combination of red for the shadow, orange for the sunnier part and yellow for the highlight and lightly blended.
Using that light tan color, I made a series of flat "u" shapes to indicate the tire tracks in the sand as well as a touch of the indigo for shadows. Look at the photo and study it to see how the light and dark make up the uneven sand and the tracks.
As I said, I will probably finish this in our next class but do not feel rushed to finish yours in the next class. Take the time you need and I will be around to help. Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Summer Fun Week 1
This project we will be facing our fears: The fear of making a mistake, of doing it wrong.
There are times as an artist we need to break out of our comfort zones and try something new or different, whether it is a new kind of paper or surface, new colors, different style... adding these new skill to our tool box only makes us better artists. We may not always use this new skill but we won't be afraid to use it if we see a place where it will work.
That is what I wanted to do with this lifeguard tower. Yes, I could have done something very close to the photo, but what fun is that? So I am going to just break out of my comfort zone just a bit and try to liven this routine scene up a bit.
I started out on a gray sanded surface I made myself using mat board, gesso (black and white) and Golden's ground for pastel. To that I transferred my sketch.
I like to start with my subject when I am working in pastel. I just base it in and only do a bit of detail then work on the background. I started with the tower using 2 colors for both the shadow areas of the tower and for the light areas. The shadow was a lavender blue and dark teal the light was a light blue and light teal. then I blended the colors.
The PV peninsula behind the tower was soft gray tans and gray greens with a bit of the lavender blue in them as well. I lightly blended the colors. Don't forget to do the area behind the railings and under the tower as well.
The windows I used a dark blue and a bit lighter blue, using the dark blue to suggest shadows and "things" inside the little office. You do not need to be specific, just make some shapes.
The sand was several colors of tan - one lighter one darker and some dark indigo. Because my surface was a dark gray to begin with, some of it shows through, even after blending, creating texture in the sand. I kept the lighter sand nearer the tower and used the darker colors as I got closer to the bottom, this helps focus the viewer into the painting and breaks up that stretch of brown. I may do something with this area later, this is just the beginning.
The water was just a couple of shades of blue that I had already sued in the lifeguard tower, thus repeating colors already in my painting.
With the basics of my painting based in I started on the background sky area, this is where I went a bit wild - at least for me.
Near the top of the peninsula and around the tower I started with my lightest yellow, then switched to a darker yellow, then orange, crimson then dark blue. I blended them together starting in the light yellow and working my way out to the darker colors so the transition areas blended gently together. Keep a wet paper towel handy to clean fingers when you blend especially if you are going back into the light area after working in the dark blue, if you don't you will get green.
This is where I left off in class. I will continue to work on this and I may change or add things as I work and inspiration hits me - that is the fun part of art. You can chose your own colors or just do a normal background or play with it like I intend to do. It is just a piece of paper and we are having fun.
keep painting and I will see you in class.
Portia Study.
Not much to say about this, I just kept working and adjusting my color, adding detail. I put the back ground in before I started on doing any finishing work on the leaves or before I started on the flower.
The soft fuzz around the edges of the flower were done with a couple of different colors of a soft grayed lavender, the rest of the flower were soft smudgy, strokes of greens that were as close to the color in the photo as I could get. This finished very quickly so I will have to find something new to paint next week.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
I didn't get a lot further than I was last week because people realized that I was starting the project so I back peddled a bit. I went over how I did the sky and the background mountain then did a demo on the foreground rocks.
