Orchids

I have been working on an orchid painting. This painting is pastel on 6x12 PastelBord. I approached the painting by first doing an underpainting in Sienna tones. Once the underpainting was finished, the background was next. Then it was time to start working on the flowers. Here is a sequence of step-by-step photos. The painting isn't finished yet, but it will be soon.

ARtichokes and Lemon on my easel - phase one

I started a new pastel painting today. I am working from a photographed still life set up. The subject is an artichoke and lemons. I am working on Clairfontaine PastelMat. I am working in a little bit different way on this painting. First, I did a value-scale underpainting of the artichoke and the lemons in Sienna tones. Then I blocked in the table and the background. The next step will be to begin adding color to the objects.

An experiment

I recently had an opportunity to buy some velour paper from a different manufacturer. There were a variety of colors including a bright orange. I bought a number of sheets of the tan, blue, and gray that would most typically be used with pastels and I also got some dark brown and some orange. The orange intrigued me because I wondered if you could get the same sort of luminous results with pastel on orange paper that Robert Warren achieves with his orange canvases. I played with the orange paper a little. These eggs are certainly not finished, but I did enough to figure out that for some subjects, the orange paper just might work. More playing is required, though. The eggs are actually more colorful than they appear in the photo. My scanner picked up a lot of the orange undertone and ignored the blues to a large extent. Watch for more.

What's on my easel?

My student and I are working on a Downy Woodpecker in pastel. This is about 7x9 on Colorfix sanded paper. The paper is a sort of greyed lavender color so it helps provide a good base for the sort of wintry looking piece. Last week we just laid in a background and worked on the wood siding. Today we started on the little bird. He is coming along nicely, but still needs a lot of work. The background was scrubbed in and then blended using a soft brush and denatured alcohol. Once the bird is finished, the background will need some additional attention.

Chocolate in Pastel

Not only did I do the bunny in colored pencil while I was in Ocean City, but I also took some time to do him in pastels. The biggest difference in the appearance of the two pieces is that the colored pencil version literally shines because the pencil is wax based and when burnished it is somewhat shiny. The soft pastels have a mat finish. Both the colored pencil pieces and the pastel piece were done on the same color Mi-Teintes paper. The pastel version also has a few more areas of reflected color--tints.

Painting for today

I have decided to try to make time to do a small painting every day. Today I got out the pastels once again and another 5x7 pastel board. This little piece is sketched from a set-up of a little Longaberger basket filled with small artificial pears and apples. For the background, I applied several colors and then used a watercolor brush and denatured alcohol to blend them together. Notice the left-hand light source. This is a challenge for me as I am so completely right dominant!

Signs of Fall

This little guy is rendered using Derwent Graphitint pencils. These are graphite pencils with a hint of color. They have a pretty smooth laydown like graphite and they are nicely blendable. The 24 colors are all earth tones and are pretty subtle. I used about 5 different pencils in this piece, all various shades of brown plus black. These pencils can be used dry like regular graphite pencils, but they are also water soluble. In this piece, the squirrel is done using traditional graphite pencil techniques. The leaves were dampened after they were colored. The water brightens the color of the pencils a bit. For the background, I made a powder of two of the pencils (in two separate containers) by grinding them in a fine mesh tea strainer. Then I applied the powder with a stiff brush.

More from the Liliedahl Seminar

In addition to the large piece from yesterday's post, we also did a small 8x10 feature study. This was also done in oils using the Bistre method.

Bistre underpainting

Finished study

Seminar Project

I just got back from a 3-day seminar with portrait artist Johnnie Liliedahl. Our project was a portrait based on a work by an early 20th century Russian artist and was painted in oils. The portrait was developed by first doing a value scale underpainting in Raw Umber. This is a Flemish old master technique called Bistre. Once the underpainting was completed, the dark areas were painted in layers of transparent glazes. The light areas (skin tones) were painted with opaque mixes. This piece was painted on a 16x20 canvas.

Finished!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted my Williamsburg Street Market Vendor in progress. Well, I finally finished her. Here she is. The background was a challenge because the original photo had a lot of 20th century visitors in the background. I finally settled on grinding the point of one of my graphite pencils into powder using a fine-mesh strainer. Then I applied the powder to the background using a Q-tip.

Same Design, Different Medium

Sometimes you find a reference that you really like. When this happens, you may find that you want to paint it over and over again in different mediums, or different color palettes. These two paintings are both done using the same reference photo. This reference was in a Gourmet magazine several years ago. I contacted the photographer through the magazine and got his permission to use the photo as a reference. He was very gracious.

The first version of the compote is done is oils. It is painted on 8x10 gesso board, my favorite support for oils. The painting was done by first creating an underpainting in Burnt Sienna and then applying the color over it.


The second version is in colored pencil on black cardstock. This one is approximately 5x5. The result is a very different looking painting.

TAH DAH, Part 3

There are a lot of details in the mural that are not easy to see in the full photos. Here are some of the detailed pictures. One of the important aspects of Rufus Porter's murals was that he made an effort to keep perspective in his work. Hills and mountains that are further away from the viewer are more blue and lighter. Buildings that are further away are smaller and those that are closer are larger. The trees and bushes are sized to match the buildings one the plane in which they appear. The whole mural is framed by the foreground trees that are as tall as the wall and the foreground bushes that are nearly life size. If you look at the previous posts, hopefully you will be able to pick out the various planes in the landscape and notice how the foreground trees and bushes frame the entire work and help establish perspective.

Here is the Grist Mill. It is the building that is closest to the viewer in the mural. Notice the detail in the stones that make up the building wall and the swan in the mill pond.

As you move further back into the mural, you will find a small grove of trees and the farmer's dog is wandering by.

TAH DAH, Part 2

Here are some additional pictures of the mural. These pictures show the entry alcove. Because the wall areas are narrow, I chose not to do a lot of background landscape and instead just used trees and bushes to fill the spaces.

This entire mural was painted using DecoArt Americana Acrylic Paint in 2-ounce bottles. It took 2-3 bottles of the greens and golds, but far less than a bottle of each of the other colors. The foliage on the foreground bushes and trees were painted with sponges. All of the rest of the work was done with a variety of types and sizes of brushes.

A difficult subject

A Visit to the Aquarium

5x7

colored pencil on Bristol Plate (smooth)

The challenge in this little piece is the aquarium lighting. Everything in the picture has a blue tint. To achieve this, after the little boy was completed, I applied a light wash of blue over him. The whale was rendered using various blue pencils in addition to the white and black so that it would have the blue glow that was in the photograph. See if you can find the lost edges on the whale.

When I am ready to frame this piece, I think I am going to mat it down to about 3.5x4 so that it will be eligible for submission to a miniature show.

New Addition to Goldfish Series

Continuing my series of goldfish paintings in colored pencil, here is a veil tail goldfish on black card stock. My objective in this painting was to use the black background to emphasize the shape of the fish and make the highlights stand out. Whenever I paint living things (animals, fish, birds, people) I always start with the eyes. The eyes give you piece the spark of life and help to establish character from the first stroke of color. Once the eyes are painted, the first step in painting this piece was to base all of the lightest areas with a light wash of White. The darkest areas were first washed with Black Grape, the compliment of Orange. After the initial washes, the color was built up in layers with the lightest, brightest oranges layered in last.

Pears and Luggage

Here is my latest colored pencil project. It is from a still life drawing that I did several years ago and just hadn't been inspired to turn it into a painting by any of the mediums I was working with. It is painted on cardboard-colored cardstock. The pears are underpainted using complimentary purples as are the brass buckles. In order to keep the pears and brass buckles from disappearing into the cardstock, the first step in developing this piece was to put a light wash of white over those areas.

Same Design, Same Surface, Different Palette

This rose is one of my favorite designs and it is very adaptable. I have done it in watercolor, oil, and colored pencil. Here is an example of how you can take the same design, change the palette and still get a beautiful end result. Both of these roses are painted using colored pencil on suede mat board. In each case, the color of the mat board dictated the colored pencil palette that was used to paint the piece. Both were developed using the underpainting technique with Prismacolor Premier pencils. The pink rose was underpainted with Indigo Blue. The yellow rose was underpainted with Violet which is the complimentary color to yellow.

More Colored Pencils

I am continuing to play with my pencils and I am thoroughly enjoying them. I have collected a number of technique books that are very helpful. I am finding new and exciting techniques to apply to my own work. Here is a recent piece--three pears on a cloth painted on beige cardstock. The pears are painted using an underpainting technique with complimentary colors.

New Miniature Paintng

It has been a while since I started this little piece, but here is Sadie. Sadie was painted on a 4x4 gesso board square. The technique was a Burnt Sienna underpainting with oil overlays. The world is made up of dog people and cat people. I am a dog person and I find it very difficult to paint cats. Cats' faces are flatter and have less dimension than dogs'.

Green Bottle - a new painting, a new challenge

I have been so busy that I have not had any studio time to speak of for a few weeks. I have missed my paint brushes. I finally was able to spend some time last night and today working on some new projects.

This one is an oil over acrylic underpainting on gesso board. The size is 5x7. I took the photo when I was visiting my friend. She had this bottle sitting on her window sill and the sunlight shining through it presented a challenge that I just had to accept.

Reference photo

Underpainting

Green Bottle (Oil on Board)