Monday, January 21, 2019

Underpainting or Not

For this blog I have drawn this scene twice: 
1) on black Uart paper and 
2) on cream colored Uart paper with a watercolor underpainting. 

Why? To show how the underpainting affects and suggests the rest of the pastel painting.
The focus of this scene is to show the field glowing with sunshine.
"Buckeye Meadow Light" on black UArt paper
Uart sanded paper can accept many types of underpainting techniques including watercolor, very thinned oil painting, pastels liquified with rubbing alcohol and pastel rubbed in with paper towel.

In this demo I created the underpainting with watercolor. The loose approach of watercolor can produce some unexpected "happy accidents". Using complementary colors for the underpainting can create either a vibrant pastel which bounces off the complementary underpainting or can suggest a more nuanced approach.
Watercolor underpainting for "Buckeye Meadow Light" 
I liked the warm color of the watercolor sky so decided to go with that suggestion and keep the sky light and warm.
Step 2 is adding pastel over the underpainting.
After adding the first layers of medium and dark color pastels, I add lights to the areas that are bathed in sunshine.
Medium and dark pastel colors, then add the lights - golds and yellows
After working on the lights, the only area left is the sky which I usually deal with first. But the suggestion of the warm sky color made me leave it to the end. Sometime you just have to go with the flow and you'll know when it's right to deal with an area.
The light sky color helps tie together the warmth in the field and the light on the tree.
Here's the reference photo that inspired the series "Buckeye Meadow Light I & II










Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Part 2: Making bright clean colors

I like showing the final image first so you can get excited about the colors. This image is composed of complementary colors: purples and golds/ blues and oranges with some added green because I can't seem to restrict myself.

The mountains are created with first putting down purple (which was too bright) but then modifying that color with complementary mauve - a grayed down reddish/purplish color. It serves as a way to calm down the purple and push it back. This is a case when using muddy colors can add clarity to the image by separating the point of interest from the background.

This is the final step. 
This is the reference photo which is the inspiration but not the exact image. Use reference photos to capture the basic idea but don't be enslaved to it. As you can see the color is way off and I focused on the top 1/2 of the image for my inspiration.
Step #1: Sketch in the basic shapes - don't be too detailed, just the shapes, please.
Step 2: Block in the shapes with darker colors and wash in with rubbing alcohol to establish the base color.
Step #3: adding more layers. The quicker you can get to the final layer the clearer our colors will remain.



Part 1: Making Mud

My students have been asking, "How do you keep your colors clean, and not make mud?"
This will be a 2 part post.
Part 1: How to make muddy colors
Part 2: Clean colors demonstration

Making mud - really means how to keep your colors clean and bright, but I think the best way to learn to make clean colors is first to make "muddy" colors.
The term "Mud" can mean "brown" or "grayed & not bright".
Having grayed down colors serves a purpose - mostly to help make your bright colors stand out from each other. Too many bright colors yelling all at once creates chaos.
To make brown when mixing oil paints follow this formula "More red than yellow, more yellow than blue".

But these are pastels so you'll have to layer colors on top of each other.
First, try mixing all the primaries on top of each other and then the magic touch - rub it in with your fingers. If you've taken a workshop or class from me you know how much I preach against rubbing with your fingers and this is the #1 reason why. - muddy colors. 

The image above shows mixing primaries to get muddy colors and mixing secondaries to also get mud. Complementary colors generally gray down the original color too.

The images on the right show a brightly colored drawing and below I drew the image with the same colors but then made a second and third layer with the complementary colors. Placing complementary colors on top grays/muddies the colors. Sometimes this will produce exactly what you want - a moody image - not bright and sunny for sure.

The next post will show the steps for a bright, sunny clean colored drawing.