Spring 2018 Pastel Project: Magnolia Week 3
This is the final class for the Magnolia where I did detail and added final highlights.
In the lightest parts of the petals I added white this time, lightly blending into the darker colors. along edges I used a corner of the white and left it alone. I really didn't do too much blending at this stage to keep the white looking clean.
The center I used light orange, a very light yellow and a deep crimson for the stamens a light green and a dark green for the center cone.
I like to add "bug bites" to my plant paintings, for this painting I used a gold for the dying part and a sienna for the dead part of the bug bite.
On the branches I used a light gold color for the final highlights on the branches and the sunny part of the buds. I lightly smudges the branch behind to throw it out of focus.
On the upper parts of the branches I didn't use as much of the light gold and I lightly smudged the edges of everything to give an out of focus look to the area. The soft look will direct the viewer to the flower.
By lightly smudging selected ares of the branch while leaving other areas around the flower crisp, it gives a 3D effect to the painting.
This is how I finished up the magnolia in class. Because not everyone is where I am, I am not going to start any other class projects this semester but I will be working on things in class and helping you with your projects so keep painting and I will see you in class.
Spring Pastel Project: Magnolia Week 2
This week I started detailing my flower and stems.
I used a light warm grey for the sunlit parts of the stems and my indigo for the shadows. As with may types of plants, the new growth on this tree is reddish so I used a red/brown for the base color, a pinkish color for highlights, added the indigo for shadows and a light orange for the bands. (See next image for close up)
I also added some soft yellow/green for the moss that is growing on the branches.
The buds have a light mustard yellow/green, ocher, sienna and indigo in the shadows and I blended it lightly with my color shaper.
Note the curved strokes I used on the stems to give them shape. Follow the shape of the thing you are painting to help create the form.
I lightly blended with the color shaper so I didn't lose all the strokes.
On the flower I started adding my highlights and shadows. Fro the highlights I was using a cream color and a soft, very light lavender, I have not used white yet, that comes last.
The shadows were tricky because I didn't want to get them too dark or the petals lose their translucence but they need to be dark enough to create form. I ended up using a medium dark lavender with touches of indigo and if needed more of the light lavender to keep it lighter.
The center of the flower is a light yellow/green and a dark green blended and the stamens around the center are yellow, and pink. Watch the direction that they grow, they are not coming straight out but curve out from the center.
This is where I left off for the day, I will probably finish up this project next week but if you are not this far, don't panic you can take as long as you need, I will be starting another painting that will be more for demonstration than a project because everyone is at different points of this project. You can bring something you want to work on and I will help you when needed.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Spring 2018 Pastel Project: Magnolia Week 1
Pastel works up fast for me and I often forget to take photos of the steps before moving on as in this case, I forgot to take a photo of the background before I started working on the fun stuff.
I think we are all guilty of that at times because the background seems so blah compared to the subject that drew you into painting it in the first place but in reality, that blah background played a very important part in choosing the subject to begin with. This flower would not have caught my attention when I took the photo if there had been a bunch of leaves and other flowers fighting for my attention, I know because I have a magnolia in my front yard and rarely see a flower I want to break out my 300mm lens for, This is a different variety of magnolia from the one I have and it loses all of its leaves so in the spring it just has the flowers and I loved the way it was reaching out to me and with an out of focus background even a 2 dimensional image seems to have a third dimension to it.
Bottom line, the background is important. However, by itself the background wouldn't be too interesting, what makes it interesting is how the flower and the branches break up the background into interesting, irregular shapes. These soft out of focus backgrounds work great in all kinds of subject matter and often time are a better choice than what you might have in a photo you are working on.
I am working on black poster board that I have treated with Golden's Ground for Pastel to make it into sanded paper, you can work on any color paper sanded or not, I just like to work on a sanded surface because it has more tooth and I don't have to spray it.
To create that soft background I used all kinds of colors from browns and blues to green, red, yellow and orange. I usually put down all my colors first then I start blending with my fingers to soften the colors together. I will probably have to come back in near the end to fill in gaps between branches and the background, but this is where I started. BTW, I could have waited until I had the branches and flower in but I didn't want the colors to drop down over my white flower.
I next found a warm grey to base in the lighter parts of my branches and indigo for the shadows. There are golds, greens and a red/brown for the new growth and buds.
The important thing to remember is to follow the shape of the thing you are painting so rather than doing a branch in one smooth stroke, I did a series of small rounded strokes over the top and sides of the branch, it gives it a rougher look. I have not blended this yet.
I under painted the petals of the flower with a medium light lavender and a darker lavender where I have shadows. I have not put in the center yet that will come later.
While it seems strange to start with blues and purples when you are painting a white flower, you do need to have someplace to go with your values, white on white is just white.
At the end of class one of my students was unclear on the purpose of starting the white flower with these darker colors so rather than trying to explain it again because words can fail, I just showed her with just some quick strokes how the highlighting on this lavender color is going to make the flower pop.
I also want to point out that I applied the pastel to the curves of the petals and I did blend them as well again following the curves of the petals.
Try to get your own paintings up to this level if you can and I will continue working on mine defining and detailing the flower and branches.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Pastel: Sky, Water, Rocks
I decided to do the project I am doing in the other classes with the sky, water and rocks because it is simple but sometimes those simple lessons teach you the most.
First, I sketched in my design with a black chalk. This is different from how I usually start a painting but I will get to that in a moment. I am working on a piece of mat board that I have treated with ground for pastel to give it a sanded surface.
Once I had the design on I looked for my darkest shadows and used the black chalk to fill them in, then lightly went over the middle values with a light layer of the black, basically skimming the surface of the paper so it wasn't too dark.
Next I took a brush and some alcohol and went over all the black chalk to set the design. This is a basic alcohol wash. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of this part of the painting.
Once the alcohol was dry, then I started adding my color, working from the sky down.
Notice that the sky is lighter than the water though the top is darker than the bottom of the sky and I did use a bit of a burnt orange along the horizon.
The water included not only blues of various values but also lavenders and greens. The foam is under painted with a light purple.
The under painting for the rocks included a dark brown, a middle brown, a gold orange, a light gold and a sienna keeping the lighter colors at the top of the big rocks and in the dry areas of the shore.
I will finish this in our next class. Keep painting.
Pastel Project: Oasis Week 3 and 4
I didn't get the previous week posted last week so this will be a combination of 2 weeks of work. I finished the project in the last class so this will be the last post on this project.
This was where I ended on the 3rd week. I finished putting in most of the rocks, added the trees and started on the water.
The trees I sketched in with my indigo blue mostly to place my trees before filling them in with a dark brown on the dark side and a light gray on the highlight side. I used the indigo for some of the branches and for shadows in the larger parts of the trunk.
Using a harder pastel to draw in the branches makes it a bit easier to get fine lines and when you are painting trees you need a lot of branches not fewer, the need to cross over each other and branch off often otherwise the trees look like the gardener has been there trimming the trees.
The rocks in the water should, for the most part have flat bottoms where they go into the water. These rocks are in the shadows so the water is a darker blue moving around the rocks.
The under painting for the water coming down the center of the rocks goes in and out of the sun so your choice of colors needs to be appropriate to where it represents, for instance the water foam in the sunlight can be white but the foam in the shadows needs to be blues and lavenders so they look cool.
The water for the most part isn't blue but more of a green/gold color and I used the indigo again in the shadows as well as some darker blues.
In the final week I finished adding the water using the gold/green for the darker shades in the water and a gold color for the highlights and lightly blended the colors to suggest rocks under the water. I used white in the sunlit areas for and lithe blues in the shadow areas for foam and sparkles.
The grass I used a dark green with indigo at the base, a medium gold color for the middle part of the grasses and a light tan color for the light ends.
Here is another view of the grasses along the edge of the stream. Be sure that you get the grass down in between the rocks and that they are going in all directions.
The leaves in the trees aren't much more than smudges of color. I used a dark burnt orange for the darker color and a bright yellow for the sunlit leaves and I did add more clumps of leaves than were in the photo so the leaves ant the top connected visually with the rocks below. As an artist you have those options to improve your paintings you are not a slave to your reference material.
This is the final version of the project. I will be starting something new next class but it won't necessarily be a class project. You can finish up on this project if you want or work on your own projects until the end of the semester.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
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.
