Hello Students,
I enjoyed our class yesterday and I hope you did too. In case you want to try painting the plums again here they are, one burnished and the other with the filmy coating still on it.
I believe you can click on the image to download it to your computer.
I painted the subject myself this morning and found that it was considerably more difficult than I had anticipated. I apologize for choosing such a challenging subject and encourage you to hang in there while I come up with some easier subjects for future classes.
Here is my watercolor under painting. I didn't paint the darkest plum purple dark enough but otherwise this painting was about right.
Here is my finished plum; it took 30 pastels to complete this painting. I found that the filmy areas were pale pink, pale peach, pale orange, pale red-violet, pale violet, pale blue-violet, pale blue, and medium blue. Phew! You can see how a pastel artist's tableau can become very large.
So when you buy open stock, be sure to buy pastels in value runs of at least 3 (preferably 5) values as shown in this color chart from pastel manufacturer Blue Earth.
Below are some flower subjects you may use for next week's assignment. Or, if you have leaves and/or flowers in your own yard photograph them and work from your own photos. Remember to bring your reference photos to class next week along with your other supplies.
Your homework is to draw your chosen subject twice (as large as possible) on a sheet of 140# cold pressed watercolor paper. Using rich, saturated watercolors, and a loose painterly style, paint one of the images. Bring this partially completed piece to class and we will work on them together.
Please paint the background too, using a neutralized color will make the brightly colored flower really pop off the page. Notice how the background in the following images has several values from top to bottom....painting your background with these same value shifts makes the image seem more three dimensional.
