pastel lesson: apples on a reflective surface (Kitty Wallis sanded paper)

Here's the line drawing in a neutral hard pastel. 

I used hard pastels to block in the darkest values in each area.
I now see that the reflection of the apple on the left is too wide, if I had checked the
drawing a mirror before I began painting I likely would have seen my error.

I key the painting by adding the lightest value, the highlight.

I neutralized the colors in the reflections by adding a layer of the warm brown of the table top.

Final touches on the fruit and some colorful background.  I now think the background
is too bright and energetic; it competes with the apples, my center of interest.

 

The upper Dungeness River at Heather Creek

Last week when it was hot (yes, those 2 days in August) Tom and I took a lovely hike along the upper Dungeness river and as usual I took enough reference photos to last a lifetime.  I couldn't wait to get home and get my brushes wet!  I am trying to get more comfortable with the system of applying watercolor in 3 layers.  So, here is the drawing with the lightest areas masked out.

I forgot to stop and take a photo after the initial very wet wash, but here is the painting after the first wash and with the resist removed and some of the second layers of paint  in place....notice how I jumped from the soft first wash to the hard darks around the stones - it was too great a jump and precluded many of the interim choices I wanted to incorporate.

Here is that painting as finished as it was going to get....I was disappointed and a little discouraged.  The reference photos have such dramatic lights streaming through the trees and onto the water and I wasn't able to capture it to my satisfation.

Here's the reference photo - I'm sure you can see what I mean.

So, I drew it again and put much less resist in the upper right area.  I decided I wanted to have the lightest lights included in the first wash.  See the color swatches on the side of the paper?  I mixed puddles of each color before I wet the paper so I wouldn't need to stop painting to mix more paint.  This also helps me have confidence that the colors I have chosen will be harmonious.

Again I forgot to take a photo after the initial wash was dry - I was just too eager to jump into the second layer I guess.  Even at this stage though I could tell that I was being more sensitive to the mid values.  I was pleased that they were clear and jewel like colors, not dark and muddy like before.

You can see the white of the paper on the right appears to be blue, so you know the color of the entire photo is too dark and too blue; the actual painting is lighter and has a more sunny yellow cast.

Here the second layer is complete...all that's left is the detail work especially in the lightest area.  So out comes the small brush and the new rigger brush I bought especially for branches and twigs.

And Voila!  It's finished.  Of course it's still not perfect, but it does capture the cool, frothy, mossy dampness Tom and I enjoyed that day.  I hope I don't always have to paint a subject twice, but if I do, it's a good way to capture what I learned the first time and overwrite that glum feeling of  disappointment with satisfaction!

  

Arches National Park watercolor and pastel

Large puddles of cerulean blue,  yellow ochre, rose madder are ready for the initial wash.

I spritzed the paper (140# stretched) with lots of clean water then evened it out with a large brush covering all of my fairly detailed drawing.

Here are the first washes, I thought they were fairly strong, but as you will see later the sky could have used a lot more paint!




After the first washes were dry I masked out a few areas.

I begin laying in more color working from the distance to the foreground.

Here I wetted an area (the 3 gossips) with water then dropped in the colors and let them run together.  I am interested in having juicier paintings and this is a great way to loosen up in a controlled areas.

I have almost finished defining the major rock formations, notice how I left a soft edge on the lower right - this is so I can go into that area again later and the next wash will appear seamless.

Scumbling in passages of plant-like shapes in the foreground, trying for some diagonal lines with the greens and reds.

Here the painting is nearly finished, I have added pastel to the plants in the foreground.  I will drab down and soften the pastel plants so we feel that we can walk right into the scene without tripping.  As I mentioned at the beginning, the sky could have used a little more punch, but it's not horrible.  For some reason the camera is making this painting look pretty gaudy.  It's definately colorful, but not this much.

Arches National Park at sunrise.  I had add one more photo, it bothered me that the last one wasn't cropped properly.

Painting children

I think the name of this little girl is Alma, she was dancing and singing and jumping around at our gardens a week ago and I finally got her to pose for a few photos.  If you click on the photo and zoom in on her face and hair you will see that I used colored pencils to add the finishing touches to her hair and face.  This is because the 300# rough watercolor paper began to look mottled and bruised after a dozen or so glazes.  I will paint the next portraits on 140# paper as suggested by Paul McCormack.

There are a couple more details that I want to work on with this portrait, but it's nearly there.  I did take a few photos in the early stages, but I can't find the photos in my enormous Picasa files....if I do, I will share them later.
I am going to try repainting the portrait of my neice Keira soon, since I feel I will be able to do a much better job now that I understand more about how to mix colors for skin, especially the delicate skin of children.  Keira has the very fair skin of a redhead and the most gorgeous ice blue eyes so the nuances will have to be subtle!

Keira the Artist (5 years in the making)

This is the thumbnail value sketch I did from half a dozen photographs. 
You will see that later I made the light shape at the top of the painting larger.  I use this loose sketch to intentionally find places to lose edges for example between her shoulder and the chair back.

This is the collage photograph that I made from the 6 reference photos I took.  I liked the left hand in one photo, the right hand in another, the face in a third and the chair and background in a couple others.  This is more of the designing phase of the painting.


I projected a few key lines and points onto my half sheet of 140# stretched Arches paper to get the scale correct, then completed the drawing using the reference photos to place the details accurately.

I masked off some hair strands and a few details in her shoes before laying in the first washes.  I painted the main portion of her hair wet in wet as suggested by Paul W. McCormack in this amazing article http://mccormackstudios.com/Sheer_Realism.pdf on how to paint luminous portraits.  I took these photos of our granddaughter Keira more than 5 years ago and was never happy with my ability to paint life like skin.  Paul's step by step process finally helped me crack the code of how to proceed with confidence from start to finish.

Here is the completed painting (sorry it's crooked, I will take better photos later) I will live with it a while to see if I want to darken her pants or lighten some more of the middle background.   For now though, it's finished.

Hellebores - the annual temptation

I really love my brave little hellebores - they are out in this nasty weather blooming and
laughing at the snow. I sketched these blooms and bottles in my studio - trying to draw
loosely and largly from my shoulder, not my fingers and wrists.  This is a half sheet of hot pressed watercolor paper without any priming or stretching.
I have wanted to do a painting with a dark background for a while and this seemed like a good subject.

I also took lots of reference photos because hellebores nod and fade too quickly.

Continuing with my efforts to stay loose (is that an oxymoron?) I washed in large areas of dark,
medium, and light values with watercolor using a 1" round brush.

I don't know if I am finished with this painting...I tried so hard to remain loose, but the
fascinating pistals and stamens of my dainty hellebores and the light in the glass and on
the cloth drew me inexorably back into painting details. Argh, as Popeye would
say "I am what I am" I guess.  Leave your thoughts and comments please.