Clouds Over Longbeach

Sometimes you have to remove large portions of a reference photo to create the painting you really want.
I think this photo was taken in Longbeach, WA, but that may not be correct....please let me know if you recognize this view.  Anyway, I loved the warm clouds and the feeling that I could see for miles.


Here is the charcoal drawing on La Carte pastel board.

A light block in of the sky and sand masses.  The brightly reflective stream in the foreground will be the focal point of the painting.

Blocking in the darkest values that I see in the clouds. 


Restating some of the darker warm colors in the clouds (they were too light initially)

Adding details to the distant hills, stream, and grass on the shore.

The completed painting is 12" x 18"  As always, the photograph just doesn't do it justice...I may need to re-photograph this painting in muted daylight.  

For students who can't make it to a week day class
I will be teaching a weekend workshop Painting with Pastels in February
(you can rent my pastels if you don't have your own).
Please go to http://cuttinggarden.com/events.html for more information and to register.

More Clouds

Today I am painting the same clouds and mountains subject on 8" x 10" watercolor paper with a watercolor underpainting

Cad red under the mountains, oranges, blues and greys elsewhere.

Blocking in the pastel shapes

 

Here's the finished piece - somehow photographing pastel isn't all that successful.  The cloud colors and values are much more pleasing than this photograph conveys. 

November Clouds

Back in the studio after a most enjoyable break teaching watercolor....time to reaquaint myself with my pastels!  This reference photo was taken a few nights ago with my phone camera.  Working on Kitty Wallis Belgian mist support, I sketch the main shapes including increasing the height of the foreground. 

I block in the main shapes with the darkest values I see within each shape.

With just a couple of later additions this is the palatte for this painting.

Further refining shapes I add some lighter values and soften almost all the edges and transitions.

I now realize that as usual I have made the mountains a little too tall and wide, so I carve some clouds into their shapes to make them a little shorter and narrower.  My awe of the mountains creeps in to my drawings.

Though the painting is signed, I think I will live with it a few days to see it with fresh eyes a few times...but it's mostly complete.  12" x 18"

Organic Cabbage

A detailed line drawing and some resist

Wet the whole paper and drop in first washes

A little more resist to hold the leaf veins

Beginning the mid value washes

After the darkest values are dry I removed the resist

washing over the hard resist lines and darkening the darkest values

This is the first of 3 such cabbage images....getting ready for the Sequim Arts Small Works Show

Read all about it...New arts center begins fall classes in October :: Sequim Gazette

Let's paint and have fun creating art together!
New arts center begins fall classes in October :: Sequim Gazette

La Connor Baskets

Susan Ogilvie took our class to a pumpkin farm for a plein air class last fall and I was drawn to all the shapes and styles of baskets in the storage shed.

I always enjoy laying in the initial wet in wet washes - it's the 'secret' really to glowing watercolor paintings.

  

 

More definition, more darks and mid values.

 

I added just a few strokes of white colored pencil to regain the light on th basket edges.

Carrie Blake Lily Pond in Sequim

First the wet in wet washes.

Then reserving the shapes of the lily pads with resist.

Next, wet in wet for the reflected trees and submerged lilies. 

Darkening some areas.

More leaf details and brighter reds.

 

Removed the resist and laid in the party colors of the sun struck lilies wet in wet.

Beginning to add pastel details using Nupastels.

Here's the final painting....I am considering redoing it as a dyptich or triptich - what do you think?

May Heat Wave

Remember when it was 80 degrees for several days in May? 
I was out photographing the sunlit mountains and trees. 

I began this painting with a loose watercolor underpainting.  I used values that were darker than the finished painting would be and chroma that was duller and darker too; sadly, those first images of this painting in progress were lost in the ether - maybe the camera hiccoughed.  You can just see the watercolor area of the grass in the foreground.

The first pass of pastels was dark with connected, simplified shapes.

The last layers of pastel were warmer, brighter and more detailed.  I could almost feel the heat of the day!