Pastel Project: Apple Turnover Revised Week 1
I started my project on a 19 x 14" gray, sanded paper, mounted to foam core. While this isn't necessary I do suggest that you have some support to attach your work to even if it is temporary, because it will give you a good solid surface to work on.
As many of you found out, working larger is a better way to work but getting that larger design on the paper isn't as easy as it sounds. While I strongly suggest that you practice your drawing skills no matter what medium you end up working in, there are other methods to get a design on your paper such as using the grid system, or a projector or finding a computer program such as the two listed in Lerri's Links in the side bar (Poster8 for PCs and PosteRazor for Macs) that will enlarge your design to the size you need using regular 8 1/5 x 11 printer paper to print it out. Depending on the paper, you might be able to transfer the design using either a light box or, what I do, tape it to a window with good sunlight then tape you paper over that for a poor man's light box. You may also want to try transfer paper but be sure that it is the non-waxy kind. Whatever way works for you, this sketch is your guide, it doesn't need to be perfect and you can make needed changes as you work but it does give you the basic idea of where you are going with your painting.
Once you get your design on your paper you have to figure out where you are going to start. For me, I usually start with the subject of my painting when I am working in pastel so I can make adjustment to size or shape to my subject with the background color before I head into finishing up my painting. This is just the way I work, other pastel artists may work a completely different way so don't think that anything I tell you is set in stone, everything is ope n to interpretation.
The under painting for the outside of the basket I found several colors ranging from a middle burnt sienna color to a medium gold, using the darker sienna color in the shadowed part of the basket, switching to a lighter sienna or gold color, then to the medium gold color. You are going from the darker color to the lighter color to give it shape, same with the handle. In the darkest part near the bottom of the outside of the basket, I also added some dark blue (indigo, its a gray blue), then blended all the colors together. Wipe your fingers often if you go from dark to light.
Be sure to have your reference photo in front of you so you can see where the light changes on the basket.
The interior of the basket was done with a medium dark, cool brown, the middle gold color and the indigo, then blended together.
I am not working on detail yet or any final highlights or shadows, I am just getting my under painting in which is the foundation of my painting. I can, and probably will, make changes as I go along but this under painting is probably the most important part of your painting, don't try to skip it or you finish piece could look flat.
Next, I started under painting the apples. I was using a dark, cool red for the shadow parts of the apples, like an alizarin crimson, and a medium red for lighter areas, and the indigo for the darkest areas between the apples. I then blended the colors together.
All I am trying to do here is to establish shapes and suggest shadows, this is not the finished form of these apples by a long shot this is just the base where I start to work from over the next couple of week, these apples will (I hope) look good enough to eat.
One thing about the indigo, I really like it to add dark into shadow areas rather than black. Black, across the mediums, is a color killer though I do occasionally use it in pastel if I have no other choice, then I use it carefully. I would rather mix to a dark color because it has more life and it doesn't dull the colors around it. Indigo is a blue/gray color but you can also use any dark blue with maybe a bit of dark brown for a similar effect.
I only managed to get one of the runaway apples done before end of class and yes, I am outside the lines but not to worry, I will fix it later. Again, this was done just using the 2 reds and the indigo and looking at the reference photo but you can already see shape and that is important. The red delicious apples have a different shape than the green Granny Smiths and that is important.
This is where I left off in class and where I will pick up when we meet again. I don't like to do things at home because I don't what anyone getting lost. We have the hard part done, getting the drawing on the rest should go quickly.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Pink Umbrella Week 4 Final
In the last class, I finished up my version of Pink Umbrella working mostly in the foreground adding flowers and the woman.
I was using - where I could - my softest and brightest colors for the flowers. I did have to go over the yellow several times to get the right brightness and used a couple different chalks to find a softest, I was also looking to find places that were dark to add the brighter colors over some of those areas. It is always a good move to use contrast (light against dark) to bring impact to your painting. I used a light warm tan color to add the suggestion of rocks and pebbles into the dirt path areas as well. I left these strokes alone, I didn't blend the flowers.
As you can see in this close-up of the woman, there is no real detail, just suggestions. I used white for the sunlit parts of her dress, a very light lavender blue and indigo for light shadows and deeper shadows, respectively, I also used the indigo for her hair color as well.
The umbrella and purse were 2 colors of a cool pink almost to the purple side and white to make it softer. The hat was the warm tan I used above and indigo for the ribbon around it.
Her face and hand holding the umbrella is a soft cool brown the sunlit had is the warm tan and cool brown blended together.
I did some light blending with my color shaper on the dress, hat, umbrella and purse.
Notice how I created the distance between the woman and the background using softer, grayer colors and soft edges in the background and used brighter more colorful colors with detail in the foreground that almost give a 3D aspect to the painting.
This is the final week I will be working on this painting, I have fun doing it. Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Pink Umbrella Week 3
This last class I was working my way down my painting trying to finish what was above so I didn't mess up what was below where I was working.
I added the suggestion of rocks and dirt a few lighter highlights to the bushes but I kept things as muted as I could because this is in the distance and I needed it to look like it was far away using an indigo but smudging it with my color shaper to soften the color. No real dark shadows, no bright highlights all the while suggesting light and shadow to show contours. A balancing act to be sure.
On the middle ridge I added brighter colors and more of a suggestion of rocks and bushes. The shadows were a bit darker - I was using an indigo color and lightly touching it with my color shaper to soften the color - and a soft blue green for shadows under the bushes.
I strengthened the color of the poppies with a Indian yellow for lighter areas and a red orange for shadowed areas. The yellow for the mustard was a bright yellow green, not a true yellow.
I want you to notice something in this image: notice how now that you can see the darker foreground against the middle ridge, that middle ridge has been pushed back visually because I kept the colors softer and grayer and less detail.
Now that I was working in the foreground my colors become darker and more colorful. I started by adding paths and patches of dirt then doing a darker under painting for the bushes. I have not done anything to the lady yet but notice how she stands out against the middle ground because I have enough value and intensity of color behind her.
When you are painting the bushes, be sure to add variety of size and shape, have them over lap plants behind them and don't line them up like someone has planted them there you want to break up the dirt and paths so you don't have stripes going across your paper.
I just got started on the foreground in class so I have some more work to do but I may finish this in our next class.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Project: Pink Umbrella Week 2
Last week I did an under painting in watercolor then covered it with the ground for Pastel which, unfortunately, messed up my values. Before I started working on the pastel part of my painting in class I went in with my dark grey and black pastels to redo my values then set them with alcohol. I only needed to do the lower 2/3's the distant part could be light.
I used 3 different oranges. For the shadowed side of the hills the orange was closer to a light burnt sienna, a middle value orange and a light orange or Indian yellow-orange for the tops of the hills.
There were 2 greens and a gray blue for the green pars of the hill as well as a grayed lavender for the patches of purple flowers on the hillside. The rock and dirt areas were a very light tan, a bit darker redder tan and a medium dark brown with some medium dark grayed blue (indigo) for the shadows and cracks.
The important part isn't the colors as much as it in the direction you apply and blend the colors. Remember to follow the shape of the thing you are painting. If it is rounded your strokes need to be curved around the the object. If it is angled, you need to follow the angle ad you put on chalk or when you blend. The human eye picks up on the subtleties and your painting can look flat regardless of what you do and this applies to all mediums.
I put on the colors starting with the oranges first, then blended the colors with my fingers or with a color shaper for smaller areas then added the greens and lavenders, blended those color and lightly blended where they touched the orange. Finally I added the rocks and dirt. the redder tan was for general rock/dirt color the light tan was for highlights. The darker brown and indigo were for shadows and cracks and I only lightly blended the dirt and rocks with the color shaper where I felt it necessary, mostly to get rid of a hard line, these things are in the distance so there won't be and hard lines.
That is as far as I got in class last time so I will pick up where I left off when we meet again. Keep painting.
Project: Pink Umbrella Week 1
Over the break I was able to go out to the Super Bloom in Temecula which was pretty amazing and I am pretty sure we will be doing more from my trip over time but when this woman with her white dress and her pink umbrella was walking across the top of this hill with the flower painted mountains in the back ground I knew what we were going to paint this semester, this was almost perfect.
I also decided to try something that I saw demonstrated at the Pastel Society and thought is was a great idea for doing pastels. I mounted a sheet of watercolor paper on a foam core presentation board with spray glue. This gives a support while you are painting then can be cut down when you want to frame your finished painting.
I also did a watercolor tonal painting using shades of gray to establish my scene before I added the ground for pastel over the top. I didn't do this as an official demo because I am experimenting with some of this and I don't want you to feel like you need to follow me down the rabbit hole for this part but I do want you to know what I did so you don't feel like I've left you behind.
This is about the 2 times through adding gray to build up the values of my under painting. One thing I discovered was that the bright oranges behind the woman were much deeper in value than you would expect which is why having a value scale can help you sort out what is going on in your picture.
I added several more layers of wash to build up the values especially in the foreground and I could probably use some more value in the distance but I can do that with my pastels but this does establish some distance.
Like I said, I was experimenting and we all learn from our mistakes. When I went to put the ground for pastel over the watercolor it kinda mushed the colors together so I may try to reestablish my values again before I start with my pastels though there is still enough left that I can just start with the chalks if I feel lazy.
Have what you are going to do ready for class and i will be getting started on this pastel in our next class. See you there.
Charcoal and Alcohol Wash Under Painting
While this technique is similar to the previous way I started a painting is is different in a couple of ways: The previous demo I started with colors on untreated watercolor paper, set the colors with alcohol before adding the pastel ground over the entire paper. At that time I treated another sheet of watercolor paper with the ground so I had a sheet to with with later. This second sheet of treated paper was what I used to start my new painting.
I used charcoal to lay in the elements of my painting, roughly doing a value study, then I set this drawing with the alcohol and let it dry before I started to work on my painting.
This is just the first layers of chalk over the alcohol and charcoal wash.
These are by no means the only ways to start a painting just a couple that I am familiar with and as I learn more I will pass them along to you.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Desert Demo Week 2
Last week, as part of showing several techniques from an alcohol wash under painting to adding an acrylic ground to the surface of the watercolor paper to keeping a more impressionistic look by leaving the chalk un-blended for the most part, I ran out of time to finish the painting. I finished it in our last class.
There are a few things I want to point out on this final image. First notice that because I did do a bit more "detail" in the flowers in the foreground it allows the viewer to come to the conclusion that shapes of similar color in the background are probably the same as the flowers where you can see more detail. This is why you don't need to do a lot of painstaking detail in the background because if you have something of similar color or shape in the foreground your mind can fill in the blanks.
The other thing I noticed was I did something I should have caught as I was painting this but didn't until I was looking at the photo, my flowers across the bottom are too regular. They are evenly spaced apart, all looking the same basic direction and almost in a straight line across. This is important for you to see in many ways: First, so you are aware of the problem so you can avoid it in your own paintings and second, we all can make mistakes no matter how long we have been doing something. To line things up and keep them about the same size is a perfectly normal human thing to do and we as artists need to be aware of that tendency so we can try to avoid it. I was trying to finish up the demo and was not paying attention so that part of my brain got away with lining up the flowers in a perfect little row that I didn't notice until now.
Yes, I could - if I had the painting - go back in and change what I have but it was just a demo so I'm not really wanting to spend any more energy on it, plus you get to see I do make mistakes :-)
I also made a horizontal rather than a vertical out of the vertical reference photo (upper right corner) probably because in my mind I was thinking "landscape" when I started this. Again, not really a problem but it does show you that you can convert one to the other, you just have to watch the problems like I had with the foreground flowers.
I'm not sure what I will be doing in our next class, I may start with a charcoal under painting with an alcohol wash unless someone has a specific problem they would like demoed.
Keep painting.
The interior of the basket was done with a medium dark, cool brown, the middle gold color and the indigo, then blended together.
