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.
Class Project: Farmer's Market Week 4
This week was all about finishing touches. I worked on the fruit and suggesting some detail in the faces, but not much.
For the lattice work on the bottom of the counters, first I darkened what was there is a bit of indigo to what was there, then took a soft gray and made a series of /////// strokes from the foreground to about his knee then switched to a warm white. Coming back towards the foreground with the white I did a series of \\\\\\\\\ strokes until I got back to the gray area, switched color and finished making my strokes, this gives me the IMPRESSION of of the lattice work but it is done simply and quickly.
Notice I left a little space under his foot where you see a little bit of light, this gives the impression that he is resting his foot on the cart.
The big lights were done in 2 steps, first I uses a light gold color for the area that will be brightest around the fixture and made it slightly bigger than the light will be then soften it in to blur the edges. Next I used a very light yellow or you can use white to make the lights themselves in the center of the glow you just put in leaving the edges hard. The fixtures them selves were just suggestions of something holding up the light bulbs I used dark brown for some and indigo for others.
The string lights were also a 2 step process. first I took a dark ocher color for the lights in the back and just made scribbles about a third of the way to the front, then switched to a lighter color but still like a dirty white. Remember as you come forward your scribbles need to be longer and further apart to create distance in your painting.
For the lights on the strings I used a very light yellow. In the back, they were more small dots and dashes close together and as I came forward, they became larger and more dash than dot. Remember to put them at all angles off the strings.
One of the great things about painting something like this is you can create the illusion of something by using just a bit of detail someplace else. On the sign behind the oranges and the sign behind it, I did some simple writing then all the other smaller tags, I just made marks in a similar color and the viewer assumes that there is writing. Same with the clock on the wall, it is just a few simple marks and it is done.
Basically, I am done with this painting. Could I find more to do? Yes. I. Could. But why would I want to? I have everything I need to tell the story without detailing this thing out and I like the way it looks at this point. I always live with a painting for a while before calling it done as I will with this one, if nothing jumps out at me, I can sign it and put it on a shelf (sadly, that is where most of my paintings live). However, if you feel like you need to do more to your painting please go for it! You aren't doing this for me but for yourself and so you need to finish it the way you want, and that is perfectly okay in my book.
I will start something new next class that won't necessarily be a project but if you have questions on what I am doing as I work, please feel free to ask. Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel Project: Farmer's Market Week 3
Once I had everything under painted and based in, then I started adding some detail. It is important to always work around and through your painting so you don't get stuck in one place and it gets over worked while the rest of your painting suffers. Often time the reason the area does not look correct to you is because it looks out of place compared to the unfinished areas around it. It is a better habit to bring things up to the same level before moving to the next level of detail in your painting, a good indicator that you are spending too much time in one place is you feel frustrated with the area you are working on. Time to move on.
Notice that things that are in the background have little or no real detail. Even the little woman's face is just a suggestion as are the fruits on display which are just rounded shapes of color to suggest tops of the fruit, they are not dots or complete circles, just rounded, overlapping shapes. If they got too distinct when I was adding the shapes, I lightly touched and smeared to area to soften and push that area back. Remember: These things are in the background so they are softer, grayer and closer together.
I am just getting started on my worker. I used a very light golden yellow for the highlights on his T-shirt and a soft lavender for the shadows. the "white" boxes are also a light lavender color yet to the eye they read white.
On the floor, I wanted it to look like light was coming in from the door in the background even though you don't see it in the photo, I am the artist and I like the idea that light is coming into my subject.
The detail on the boxes are not precise replicas of what is in the photo, they are more essence suggested with color and shape, don't get too hung up on lettering.
Whenever you start working on detail, you will slow down a bit, just be aware not to get too caught up in it. As an artist you can fool the viewers eye with just a few shapes that might look like something such as the oranges and apples in the foreground: They look like the fruit so it tells the viewer that it is a fruit stand, the viewer fills in missing detail in the background because of what it sees in the foreground.
I will probably finish this either next class or the class after, so keep painting and I will see you in class.
