Orange Tree Autumn Colors

Orange Tree

5" x 7" Pastels on Paper

The photo reference for this small landscape was posted by DAK723 on WetCanvas.com for the November 2015 Pastel Spotlight challenge, theme Autumn Colors. He had lovely landscape references. I liked this tree with its dramatic lighting a lot, especially contrasting with others that hadn't turned and two saplings that already lost all their leaves.

Sketched it on light blue Canson Mi Tientes during November but I was a tad busy writing a trashy vampire novel for Nanowrimo. So I didn't actually start painting till this morning. I used my set of 15 Caran d'Ache soft pastels, lovely thick soft pastels with a very dense feeling like Art Spectrum ones. 

I'm very fond of them. It's a small set but I've gotten good results with them, the colors are very rich and well chosen. I'm not missing anything essential in that small palette. Though if I do expand them with any others it'll probably be Art Spectrum tints.

Had some very happy news - a rent credit from my landlord for all the months the elevator hasn't been working took the sting out of being nearly housebound with it. That came at just the right time to make the holidays possible and catch up on some needed staples. I'll be moving end of February, so getting a little ahead now will carry me through without starving or doing without essentials. That rocks!

I've even indulged with a dinosaurs coloring book for myself, for those days I'm not quite up to drawing but still want to play with color!

Cat Portrait and Crooked Tree

 "Croggers" memorial cat portrait

Derwent Graphitint pencils and wash on paper

Crooked Tree Demo 

8 1/2" x 11" pen on paper

Croggers the cat was beautiful and his photo was posted for this weekend's Weekend Drawing Event at WetCanvas. I felt for the little guy and did a portrait drawing, paying close attention to markings and exact features and expression. Successful portrait, and he has that sweet meditative look that well.

Derwent Graphitint are tinted graphite watersoluble pencils, very soft, 8B softness. They dissolve fast and color brightens with water. I used them on my large Moleskine watercolor journal.

Then did a promised lesson on tree anatomy and shadow direction for my new student. She'd done a scene with one bare tree in an autumn landscape.  I let this be a winter one and implied snow with the bushes bending and stark values of the black on white. Could have added blue shadows, didn't, just kept it simple. But I like the design and may develop it into a more refined painting or drawing.

Dawn Skyscape in Oil Pastels

Dawn Skyscape 5" x 7"

Neopastel on Dawn Pink Canson Mi-Tientes

This morning I started a landscape series just working scenes out in principle, using one of my favorite oil pastels brands. I love the Caran d'Ache Neopastels - they blend well, mix easily, have medium softness but a very high pigment load so they're good and opaque.

An email student showed me some works and I needed to demonstrate how to control the land area to make the sky predominate in a skyscape. I added a little water feature to reflect the sky and lead into it, played with various colors and cloud shapes and did this entirely by design and memory. Some things just work well that way and I've sketched this type of cloud from life many times!

That's the key to memory drawing. Do the same subject over and over, preferably many small easy sketches as opposed to a few careful ones. It'll get to become second nature and you can pull it out no matter when you want it.

Autumn Trees Watercolor

Autumn Trees

Watercolor, 7" square

Playing with some watercolor foliage techniques, I wound up creating this scene from imagination with design changes along the way. The first version was too pale and rather annoying, so I extended the path all the way to the front cutting through some vegetation that crossed the front of the painting.

Then I decided to give some bright autumn foliage to the bare trees after I strengthened them. That jazzed up the scene and made it work. So this went from a very annoying fail into something I like well enough to post it. I can still do better and will, but this isn't too bad!

Day 15: Winter Dreams

Winter Dreams ATC

Monochrome Winsor & Newton Watercolour Marker, Raw Umber. I like the feel of an old time photo that monochrome brown gives a painting. This one was an exercise in values and shapes, an icy creek and snowy landscape with scattered pines and some other grasses or bushes. Even the sky is just pale clouds and slightly darker color.

Monochromes are fun. Not always black, any dark color will do. 

Light colors obtained brushing a wet Niji waterbrush over the tip of the watercolor marker.

Sketches New and Older

 Back to Basics Sketch Page, with Ari Cat from Life

Conte' Pierre Noir pencil on paper, 8 1/2" x 11"

Well, today had daily art again, at least a page of some basic sketches from a video I watched on ArtistsNetworkTV. Sometimes it's good to go back to basics. Ari Cat and all the pears are from life, since I finally found my plastic pear ina drawer and took it out. The apple is from life too but it's a real one. I'll eat it soon. 

The following are all the sketches I forgot to post in June! About half a month's sketches and paintings! Lots and lots. I wasn't skiving off even if I didn't remember to keep up the blog. I'm now keeping the tab open the way I used to as a reminder to post!

 Three pigeons from life in Derwent Graphitints.

 Ari Cat walking, stomping along in a grumpy mood. Fast gesture sketch in motion! I've wanted to capture a moving cat for some time! Got him!

Brush pen on paper.

Page of tree studies in Burnt Umber brush pen 

 Page of Ari Cat sketches mostly in brush pen or pen.

All from life, includes Ari Stomping one at top.

 Ari Cat washing his thigh in pen and watercolor

on a red coverlet, Stillman & Birn journal 7" square. Life.

Ari cat life sketches and a horse from my daughter's photo. Horse looks a bit young and attenuated but recognizable. 

Page of shell, cat, shark tooth sketches from life

8 1/2" x 11" charcoal pencil 

Green Tyrannosaurus Rex in brush pens, Ari cat from life sleeping and 

contour drawing of the same horse, better proportions. 

Landscape in Winsor & Newton Watercolor Markers

Large pine, distant mountains and green hills. 

Tyrannosaurus Rex in brown brush pen, mostly contour. 

 Ari Cat life drawing on small page.

 Ari Cat drawings from life with fine Pigma Micron pens

detailed washing thigh, detailed sleeping head pressed to pillow cute.

Majungasaurus in brown and black brush pen walking at angle.

Daspletosaurus profile in green and brown brush pen. 

Camptosaurus looking around behind a browsing Stegosaurus.

Toward the end of June I binge watched a lot of dinosaur documentaries. I sketched the dinosaurs watching them over and over, mostly didn't pause the screen. I especially wanted to get some more natural poses and sometimes, like the last one, put them in something resembling scenery.

I had a lot of fun with my sketchbooks and worked on a pastel landscape that still isn't finished. I'm all set up to finish it now and have the right pastels handy next to me for the last layers.  Wanted to work on it today but health issues interfered.

Now that I'm all caught up, enjoy! And say hi to your sketchbook. Daily drawing is good for anyone, reduces stress, improves your skills and improves observation. Even easy forms you've drawn over and over help develop observation, coordination and composition! If you don't have much time or energy, work small or keep it simple!

The Tan Cow and Ari from Life

 The Tan Cow - 5" x 7" Pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes

Whoops! I haven't posted for a while, and this is awkward.  I was a bit under the weather with many days of no art this month. But I also missed several posts I could have done. Today's is from a photo by Karen Margulis, she posted it in her blog from her recent trip to France and I had the idea of making the cow the main subject of my sketch. So I asked in the comments and she gave permission!

Hard pastels on light orange non sanded paper. Sometimes I just want to play with the easy stuff, not layer and layer.

 Tree and Mt. Fuji Page - Pocket Watercolor Moleskine journal

Prismacolor Watercolor pencils in Black and Indigo, washed.

Sometimes small is beautiful. Back on the 15th, I went out for my clinic visit and brought my Prismacolor Watercolor pencils. The little tree was sketched in the Paratransit van while we stopped to pick up another disabled person for her ride. Then on the 22nd, I finished the page. During a documentary, I paused when a train scene showed Mt. Fuji through the window. 

I'd always seen symmetrical photos of it and paintings usually render it as perfectly symmetrical. One slope was definitely gentler! It was much more beautiful to me with the elongated gentle slope to the right so I had o sketch in Indigo, a traditional color in Japanese art.

Best Fuji that I've ever done!

Ari Cat in Watercolor on Paper, Sleeping On Our Bed, Back Turned

He looked comfortable on the 21st and I could not resist painting him. 

Sparrow in Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils, Washed, on Large Moleskine Watercolor Journal

On the 15th, in the waiting room, I enlarged a photo of a sparrow that I'd taken two weeks previously and sketched and painted him. Love how that came out! About 3 1/2" across, not the full page, just upper left area of page.

Wow. I really haven't caught up! Here's still more!

Tree and Birds Page

Pen and Watercolor on large Moleskine Watercolor Journal

Drew and painted this page on July 1st, have some other projects in process that I'm working on but won't post till they're done. I did some sketching toward the end of June that I forgot to post too, but may get into that later. Caught up now for July, so that's good enough for now!

My apologies for this abandonment. I'll leave the tab up so that I remember to post when I paint!

Flowering Trees, pastel

 Flowering Trees

5" x 7" pastel on sanded paper

I started this yesterday on the second sample piece of Pastel Premier paper that Dakota Pastels sent me. I'm not sure why I took so long to do anything with the X-Fine white piece when the Medium grit Italian Clay piece was so satisfying. I was a little put off by the extra fine grit, didn't think it'd hold much pastel.

Oh was I wrong about that! The superfine grit held a lot of layers. I had to mix colors on this little darling because I was working with a 36 color set of Holbein half sticks, not my usual big selection with a deep dark violet available! 

I can also happily report that Pastel Premier responds very well to a watercolor underpainting or water wash. I'd heard it becomes a bit sticky with rubbing alcohol 70% wash so I went for watercolor. Wow. It performed beautiful. Here's my tonal underpainting in Winsor & Newton Artist watercolor (vintage pan set from 1998 or so, when they recently changed the name to Professional.)

Flowering Trees

tonal underpainting in red-violet watercolor

I like how the underpainting looks too. t came out well. I made a few changes, mostly hose two shadows on the left looked cloned so I pushed one back and connected it across the painting while making the forward one a bit larger. There's enough layers of bushes showing to give a little depth.

I had fun with this, a spring painting to celebrate the return of my body functioning again! I'm starting to have good days so I'll hopefully paint and post more now as we go toward summer!

Speaking of which, last Wednesday I forgot to post the two pen and ink with watercolor pieces I did while I was out at the clinic garden getting rose photos and lots of spring flower photos too.

 African Tree from Video

ATC size 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" pen and watercolor on paper

Started out in the morning watching yet another nature documentary and fell in love with this classic African tree from a big panoramic scene. So sketched it from life after a couple of rewinds. Fast little pencil gesture, inked and then tested the Borden & Riley 90lb drawing pad for light washes. It curled a little but didn't soak through and flattened again just fine leaving the pad upside down overnight, didn't even need to weight it. Fun little pads, pity Blick doesn't carry them any more. Wish I'd stocked up on them when they were available.

San Francisco Street View from Life

This is actually a view from outside my front door looking toward the left. There's a bright mural across the street enclosing a closed storefront that used to be a Kwik Print or something like that, then these trees in a row on my side of the street. I didn't put people into it this time, the street was fairly quiet and I was rushing to get the pencil done before the Paratransit van came.

Once I got on the van I inked it, doing squiggly and rough lines in motion and straighter clean ones at stops. Later on in the waiting room I did the washes. But the basics of the scene are still from life, it doesn't matter when I ink and color something like this.

It was fun. It feels good to be able to sketch from life. Most of my life I wasn't good enough at it to capture the scene so got very frustrated and only sketched a detail or two, now I sketch better and can detail at will. Put in the pigeon from memory, they are always around and I like them.

Cat Sketches Page

Yesterday's cat sketch, under two previously posted ones. Also some saplings sketched after a lesson by Johannes Vloothuis on how to distract from it if you have to cross a couple of trees in a background. Ways to liven it up and keep it from just looking like an X including twigs, protrusions, adding more twigs, lots of goofing around to give an impression of tangled twigs.

Ari slept on my pants in the seat of my power scooter and stayed there a good long time. He looked so sweet cuddled up on my pants. He likes laying on my laundry. Many cats will sleep in laundry, it's because they know your scent and think of you as family. Sleeping where their loved ones were before is a comforting situation for a cat.

Maybe it is for people too, if you've ever been married and gotten used to the other hollow in the bed it's that kind of thing.

Wildflower Scene with Stages

 Wildflower Scene 

5" x 7" on Uart 400 Sanded Pastel Paper

Today I did something a lot like a painting lesson. It was an experiment in several ways. Would the palette of Terry Ludwig's 14 Best Loved Basics be a good landscape palette to do a scene with hills, trees, a wildflower meadow and a beautiful blue sky? I'm happy to say yes, the results are above!

And I took some progress photos to show how I did it.

 Stage 1 Alcohol Wash In Progress

I tried something I've seen in several videos and blogs by serious pastelists. An alcohol wash like the ones Karen Margulis uses. I've long admired her results and she's a mad expert for painting wildflower meadows. Mine's just a crude attempt in her direction, she is much more concise and has the practice to say in two strokes what takes me six.

From what I saw in her examples, it doesn't take much pastel on the paper to do an alcohol wash. The alcohol should be 70% Rubbing Alcohol, the kind you get at a drugstore. Not the drinking kind even if some artists use vodka. Put the vodka in the artist and the rubbing alcohol swished on the painting with as big a brush as you've got. If you can't tell the difference, stop drinking. Do not store these in unlabeled containers for that reason.

Just swish the liquid around over the pastels within the area to be washed that color. Really don't worry about edges. I was too careful here and treated it more like a coloring book but I wanted to keep the rough abstract shapes of my bands. Karen would've slopped it on and let it drip mingling some colors for cool effects down in the meadow. That's practice for you. This is my first go. It actually will still work done this way.

 Alcohol Wash Complete

Here's how it looks with the wash in all over the painting. Now I'm not using plain beige paper anywhere. The color has gone deep into the crevices of the paper and maybe soaked in between the sand grains. It's not going anywhere. Any flecks of paper that show between my strokes or in a broken color passage will be the color of the underpainting.

The trees band is brown and the meadow band pink because these warm colors will make the green sticks in my Ludwig set pop and look greener. Since those three greens are nearly brown, I thought that was seriously important to try to give an impression the forest wasn't dead yet.

Background areas done.

Work back to front, which in a landscape like this is top to bottom. I painted the sky first and forgot to take a photo of just the sky in. There are three shades of blue in the set plus a very pale yellow nearly white. I used all four of those colors to gradate the sky. I could have blended it more to give a smooth gradation but I liked that look as if wispy clouds were blowing up in the distance.

The hills were mostly the light and medium dusty violet in the set with a bit of sky blue in the shadows to lighten and harmonize the darker violet. 

The trees I used all three greens, the gold stick and the deep dark violet. Yay for the deep dark violet in the darkest shadows at bases of trees. It helps define them. They are too small and too far away for me to put in trunks and branches but in a larger painting I might have brought some trees and bushes forward into the meadow band too to help give scale and those might get shadows and trunks.

Here's the finish again so you can see the meadow up close:

Finished painting

I did not pick out any grass blades or weeds with leaves. Most of that area I just used blocky vertical strokes with the ends of the pastels, the shorter side. I put a little green in over the gold and a touch of brown then started adding flower passages with the corners of the flower colors. At the end I added some white and blue flowers. I deliberately scumbled over the distant ones with the pale violet to push the middle ground back into the distance and cut down into the meadow area with the forest colors again. Then signed it.

A cool little experiment that worked. I might try this again with a good photo reference and see what I get, since I still have the other piece of Uart 400 to play with. Small paintings like this are fun to use to try different things, you can always try again if there's something about it you don't like!

California Hillside Day 28 of 30 in 30 Challenge

California Hillside

8 1/2" x 6" or so, WN watercolor marker on paper

Did another painting in Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers, this time from a photo I took on my way to the clinic a few weeks ago. Got an interesting tree and a ridge where I changed the shape for esthetic reasons, some bushes and bare trees in the distance. Just fooling around with skies and landscapes, this time in an 8 1/2" x 11" Stillman & Birn Beta journal - rough heavy white watercolor paper that I love for pastels as well as wet mediums. The small one is entirely dedicated to pastels, this one's going to be water mediums or whatever comes to hand. 

Earlier this morning I did a cat sketch or two in my pocket Moleskine, finishing up a two page spread of sketches including figures as well as cats. Figures mostly from imagination, one or two from a poses book I bought.

The month is almost over, but thanks to the 30 in 30 challenge, I'm more or less back to Daily Painting and Sketching. If not a full on painting, at least a sketch! Might be more later or not as I'm going out to the clinic.

Followed up with another sketch under the landscape, this time a life sketch of a big fern out at the clinic garden.

Fern life sketch

Winsor & Newton watercolour markers

Yeah, it is sort of flat on the top like that, oddly enough. It just folds over past a certain point. It's big, about my height and the base very wide. A beautiful reminder of the gentle climate I live in now.

Winter Boulder day 5 for 30 in 30 Challenge

Yes, I signed up for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. I was nervous about it but I have done four pastels in five days, so I'm only behind by one. Today's painting is a loose sketch of a winter landscape from a photo by DAK723 on WetCanvas.com, a scene I hope to revisit with an animal one of these times.

Winter Boulder

8 1/2" x 11"

Rembrandt pastels on paper

That basic drawing book I got for Christmas is getting a workout. It's handy, it's white, I don't feel bad about experimenting in it and the paper's toothy enough I can do at least general loose paintings on it. 

I have some new sanded paper too though, so I want to develop some of these things a bit more. That boulder really needs a big cat on it. My first thought was a cougar, but now I think a lynx or bobcat would fit even better, lurking to see if a rabbit or something comes down that trail. Bobcats are fun and I haven't done one stalking in the wild yet. So this is a preliminary.

For my 30 in 30 challenge, preliminary paintings do count as long as they're in pastels and in color. They have to be more than just a charcoal sketch, that's all. So far I have 4 out of 5 so that's not bad at all.

Then later tonight I did a little watercolor sketch of Ari cat for a sketching challenge - use primary colors. So I painted a brown cat in primaries.

Ari cat in Primary colors watercolor

Little horses in Winsor & Newton watercolor markers

I sketched Ari from life of course and the little horses are from a Johannes Vloothuis watercolor demo.

Autumn Shore - Blue Earth Pastels

Autumn Shore

8" x 7 1/2" approx.

Blue Earth "Land & Sea" set of 21

Canson All-Media paper, white

This is a test painting of the new pastels I just got. I finally gave in to the great assortment of values in the Blue Earth sets of 21. It became a real exercise in subsitution as a gorgeous orange tree could not be rendered with just the pastels in the box. Though the result of using the very pale pinkish color for it was interesting and I had fun with it. Not that happy with the big rock in the water, really could have left it out or done it blockier but I kept adjusting color on it to get it gray. 

For an experiment though, it is a great success. I love the range of values in the box, love the juicy impasto strokes and their super soft texture. They're fun to paint with and I can keep going when I thought I was pretty much done with them if I'd been using others. It will take a light hand to get the best out of these and after this I'll definitely also be using the dozen bright sticks I first bought to test the brand. They'll go into a combined box at some point for convenience.

More about them when I review the pastels. I'd like to do a better painting for the review, but I'm happy with this as a test. I love how some of the trees came out and how some of the reflections worked. 

Nothing is wasted. This is just my opinion of it too - others may look and go wow, Rob, you outdid yourself here. I know now what textures I can get on plain paper and the next step is using these on sanded paper - or as finishing layers in a painting done with firmer pastels. They'll shine for that.

Reworked it a little, unsatisfied with the big egg shaped rock in the water. I like it better now.

Autumn Shore, reworked

mostly by adding reeds and moss to the big rock

Pine from Memory

Pine from memory

5" x 7"

Rembrandt pastels on gray Strathmore Artagain paper

Experimenting with sky holes, asymmetry, graceful shape and painting from memory, I wound up giving it dawn light and snow on the ground - but not on the branches, where it blew off in a strong wind. I've seen pines in a snowy area that lost their snow to wind or sun before all the snow on the ground melted.

I should have been doing my novel, but I painted first. Happily the book's going well now so I took a break to post this. Onward with both! Sometimes it's good to break away for a little while just to paint.

Clouds Coming In

Clouds Coming In

pastel on paper, 8" x 10" horizontal

photo reference by tj84 on WetCanvas.com reference image library

This painting gave me some frustrating moments. I had some design problems with the areas on the land and one patch in the clouds bugged me. So I hung it on the wall across from where I sat and did other pastels and other paintings. Half the procrastination was physical, just not being up to getting out what I needed to finish it.

I went from hard pastels at the start to Rembrandt and finally finished with 120 Unison Half Sticks because that gave me the range I needed for the finish. The shadow area was too muted once I got it to the right value, so bringing in some purples made that work. I played with the foliage some more and having different hues and values in foliage colors helped enormously. 

I put in a tiny patch of sun hitting some distant trees. There's other little fun areas where light causes details. I gradated the water and added the cloud reflections, that helped a lot. It was really just finishing strokes for most of this - but every one of them was needed.

Paintings sometimes go through an Ugly Stage where it looks like you've ruined it. The last details need to be done and the finishing touches, without them it looks horrible but that is the right underpinning for those final touches. I first ran into this doing Colourist works in Charlotte Herczfeld's class because it looks ghastly right before the end - those finishing details are always needed. 

This time I think I just got tired when I was finishing it and looked down, noticed the ugly stage and choked. A couple of friends on WetCanvas provided critique. Many of them said it was better than I thought. Now I think it's better than they've seen - but thanks to them I didn't chuck it, did go finish it. 

I much prefer being decisive and moving on to the next painting than endless reworking! I hope I don't catch the wibbles again like this for a long long time!

Orange Tree by the Lake

Orange Tree by the Lake

7" square pastel on 

Stillman & Birn Beta Journal 

Photo by StormeRider (LiveJournal)

Storme and Nonny gave me permission to use a number of beautiful photos they took when they lived in Massachusetts a while back. I copied it and saved it and meant to paint the autumn scene - today's the day I did.  Very different from the photo's composition and by the time I was done they weren't the same trees either. But I loved the reference and it gave me a very clear memory of the forms and colors of a forest that is turning - some trees all the leaves are gone or brownish gray, last few bits of warm color, others still green or starting to turn, the blazing center beauties rivaling flowers in their glory.

I've seen scenes like this so many times in my life. All the years I was in New York State. All the years in Chicago or Minnesota or Kansas or Arkansas or Colorado, so many places I've lived had these scenes and roads soaring through it. I've been on drives just to see the fall colors. Taken photos I lost later on, that happened often, but it's all there in memory and this reference opened all those memories.

Rembrandt pastels work wonderful on Stillman & Birn Beta rough heavy paper. I used them with all my techniques and the deep texture gave me plenty of white flecks that I used to advantage in foliage texture for "highlighted leaves" and some sky hole effects, while others showed me good places to dot in a hole through that tree to show the foliage behind it. I like the laciness of the star tree and the way the colors blend a bit in the distance but shine around the best one. Had fun with reflections too.

Pacific Wave

Pacific Wave

5" x 7"

Rembrandt pastels on Uart 600 sanded pastel paper

Photo reference by kathymackay2 on WetCanvas.com

Painting the ocean has been on my Artist's Bucket List for all my life. I loved the sea from as long as I can remember. As a toddler I had a book about a hermit crab that fascinated me, had both beach and undersea illustrations that were absolutely wonderful - good illustrations, not just cartoons.

So I took a piece of Uart and decided to use my field pastels, 60 Rembrandt half sticks. I worked from the Weekend Drawing Event challenge where kathymackay2 posted a bunch of photo references last Friday on the last day of the current challenge... and I changed the weather. The photo reference was taken on a gray overcast day, the sea was very blue-gray and the wave was not quite as shapely, but from previous paintings and studies I understood its anatomy. I changed the weather to reflect what might have been a warmer climate or just a warmer season, moved the foam, gave it color and sparkle and light... and it just blew all my previous seascapes right out of the water.

I wasn't even thinking verbally while I painted it. I spent about 20 minutes and did not hesitate. I think I'm finally ready to try painting the sea from plein air. I understand the waves well enough they don't have to hold still, just repeat. This rocks. Today is a personal triumph.

Clouds Coming In, Underpainting

Clouds Coming In...

Underpainting

hard pastel on paper

Today I mostly planned this painting, from a photo in the WetCanvas Reference Image Library. I wanted to do another strong cloudscape, but the photo has other interesting features like that reflecting water. So I'm not sure where this is going, but I'll find out when I get there. To some extent I'm about to abandon the photo in favor of letting the painting find its way.

I used red earths under all the foliage and brush because the greens are richer with a ruddy underpainting, but used blue under the sky and water to make that vivid. I might lighten the sky some when I go back with softer pastels to create the entire scene. I might also simplify it some, though it seems to lead toward the center on the land with those pools of water. It's a little complex for something that small but I'll see what it becomes when I go back to it tomorrow. If I don't like something I can always paint it out.

Pastels are opaque and hard pastels erase easily, right back to bare paper. I'll see how this goes.

Sunset II

Sunset II

pastel on paper, 5" x 7"

Started early today so I might add more later on. I liked the sunset reference I used for the Pearlescent Pan Pastels dawn, so I used it again. It's by DAK723 posted for the October 2014 Pastel Spotlight challenge, which has a theme of Orange. Don's been doing color themes for a while, the only two left are red and violet, wonder what he'll come up with for them? Of course he could also do white, black, gray, brown as themes. I'll just have to see.

One of the things that intrigued me was the frosty field with its clumps of weeds and the lavender field, which I think is actual lavender. It was in the reference and I included it in both paintings but it's more obvious here. I think I managed to get the feel of the frost in this one. I also loved the receding trees and their numerous sky holes, something I succeeded in capturing this time.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

8" x 10"

Pastel on tan paper

I used another of my photos from the SFGH Memory Garden for this, the big hibiscus shrub with the rich blue-violet flowers. I love their color and remembered it, the photo was way off but I could remember how they really looked. That's the benefit of using my own photos. I love the Reference Image Library at WetCanvas, but even if I'm using one of those photos I try to choose subjects that I've seen in life. A photo brings back memories and gives details, that's its best benefit. 

Proportion, perspective, color, values can all be distorted by the camera, but details and sometimes proportions on a relatively small element can be measured. Otherwise it gets very strange. Don't just copy the photo, remember as much as you can!

Two pastels today though! After I finished the Hibiscus, I did a clouds study on Aquabee Hemp Draw using hard pastels, my Cretacolor Pastels Carre'. I like those for their convenience. This isn't a serious painting but there are things I like a lot about it and may develop later in a larger, more elaborate piece. Will be playing with cloud shapes in several studies till I get it to do what I want.

Clouds from Memory

8" x 10"

hard pastel on multimedia paper