Pastel Sketch, Coconuts _ Pastel Paper Differences

On wetcanvas.com there is a thread called Pastel Strokes in the Pastel Forum. Someone posts a photo and the artists paint it during the month. The artists are free to crop and change, try any style or colors. The artists can do it as many times as you wish in oil pastels or soft pastels. It is just to practice and have fun and receive a kind critique or two. This month was a photo of coconuts provided by michellej in Trinidad and Tobago.

My rendition is on Daler-Rowney pastel paper. I bought this paper at the first of last year without opening the pad, except to see that it had paper similar to glassine between each pastel sheet, making it nice for sketching and storing. The problem is that it is a heavily gridded paper. If you stroke with a wide stroke of pastel it has a grid. I have some Strathmore pastel paper and it is the same. Both have grids on both sides of the sheet. Canson paper has a grid on the "front" side but is fairly smooth on the reverse, it at least gives the artist a choice. I had purchased some Daler-Rowney paper at the last International Association of Pastel Society Convention. It was very bright colors .. orange, purple, navy, red, and yellow. It was very smooth, but holds a great deal of pastel. I had purchased some black in 1999, that was the same and I liked it very much. I was so happy to find the new muted colors this year that I did not check the texture. Wrong. Now I know. I am disappointed with this paper. I am using it only for sketches and practice.

This sketch of coconuts took about two hours, start to finish. I'm pleased with the loose strokes, colors and the crop. I also flipped the photo so the light is from the right. I will post the photo below.

Sketches in Back Yard

It was a long day, putting away the Christmas decorations, or at least starting to pack them up. Gene, thankfully, took down the two trees, so I just had to box the decorations.

About 3:30 p.m. I decided to take a break and went out in the back with a snack and sat on the bench on the deck and sketched the Carolina Chickadees that hang out on the bird feeders. It was a beautiful afternoon, about 60 degrees, sunny and calm. Pretty quiet, just the birds. Strangely enough, no squirrels. Some neighbor must have put out something great for them to pick on. I used the ZIG Millennium pen in the generic sketchbook.



After the sketch of the birds, I did a quick sketch of a big limb on one of the oak trees that lean over the deck. They are pretty right now. A grayish color with the shadows very black and a very pretty bright green moss on them. I was out there about 30 minutes I would guess.



I received a package in the mail day before yesterday from my art buddy, Sue, in Michigan. She said she can't resist a gimmick. It is a daily calendar with a watercolor lesson a day with Dennis Pendleton. It says, "Award winning artist, instructor, and lecturer Dennis R. Pendleton provides a pencil sketch for you to paint each weekday accompanied by a watercolor technique tip and a fun fact from the world of art. Weekends show a colorful compilation of finished watercolor renderings of each weekday sketch. Styles vary from impressionistic to contemporary to primitive. This calendar will inspire your eyes, mind, and spirit throughout the year -- Enjoy!

Since Sue is such a great sketch artist and encourages me to sketch more, I will give this calendar a try. I'll give you the fact for today and we shall go from there, "Did you know? Dutch painter Rembrandt's most famous painting, now called Night Watch, pioneered a sense of action in portraiture. Previous portraits of groups and individuals were portrayed in a static, posed manner." There is a sketch on todays page titled, Paris Restaurant, and the tip says, "Mix yellow, red, and lots of water for the faces. Then, add a little blue in the jaw areas and more red on the cheeks."

So we shall see how it goes. I will do the first four days after dinner and maybe I will do this more often.

Sketch, comfortable

One last sketch for Scavenger Hunt 23. A new one starts tomorrow. This is #12, comfortable. This is my red and grey flannel shirt I have on. My winter uniform is flannel shirts or sweat shirts. Ummm, comfy. Done with my ZIG Millennium in the generic sketchbook. It is about 7 x 11 inches, I think. About 15 minutes. I hope to branch out and sketch more interiors and people. See how the new year goes.

We ate lunch at Maxine's today and that old restaurant has so many interesting things. No tables match or chairs. Old posters, photos, hats, piñatas, bicycles and much more hanging on the walls. Also a live musician most days. I have to get with it! Wish me luck.

(Oops, published without the sketch, will try again.)

Plein Air, Bird House Finish and The Boys

This is the finish of the bird house. Like I said, no big changes, just darkened the upper left corner.

I forgot to mention one small problem doing the painting. When I put on the first layer of background trees I put some of the drying retarder in the mix. I used this during the summer in New Mexico and the acrylic still dried quickly, but yesterday, it was very damp here and so it didn't dry quickly enough. I was racing against the light and I started to pick up this layer when I started the next. So if you are painting in a humid place and trying to use layers, you may want to skip the retarder! I should have known. (Since I was at home in the back yard, I could have taken in in and dried it with a hair dryer, duh!)

I am pleased with this painting and will put it for sale on my plein air page soon. I like the spontaneity of the work and feel it has just enough detail to tell the story.

The panel is by Pintura, 8 x 10 inches with canvas finish.

The Boys

Here is the final of the boys, unless anyone sees some glaring error or line. I shortened the foot and brightened up the pillow. The color is still not as bright as the painting. Maybe when the photo is made with a camera with more pixels, it will look better. I hope so, I plan on entering it in the Austin Pastel Society Juried show. I will post the bigger and brighter photo next week. I'm pleased with this painting as well. I think I said it is on Ampersand Pastelbord, 16 x 20 inches. I plan to frame it with good non reflective glass right against the painting. It will look somewhat like an oil painting framed that way. I will photo that as well, but it will be a few weeks.

Plein Air - Bird House out Back

Today was a beautiful day. Cool, but with plenty of sunshine and no wind. That inspired us to go play golf. There were few golfers so it was enjoyable, just like our private course. Our play was not inspired, but the sunshine and being out in the beautiful pines and oaks made up for it. The grounds people were working on bunkers so there was activity in that way. We did not see any wild life other than some buzzards and a mocking bird, which by the way is the State Bird of Texas. I left the camera in the car. That would have been more irritating if one of us had made a hole in one!

When we got home, I did not want to stay in and waste such a wonderful afternoon. I got out my plein air easel and a panel I had painted on before. I brushed on some gesso to cover the old painting, then did a quick under paintng with some crimson and burnt umber. I laid out my pallette with titanium white, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, cadmium red, crimson, burnt umber, Hookers green and ultramarine blue. The light was pretty good, I started about 3:30 p.m. Because we live in the trees, the light faded quickly.





I attempted to get in a background and remember the light. I started with a mixture of red, blue and burnt umber with white to lighten areas. No sketching as I didn't want to get into any detail.


Using the same mixtures and varying with a little ocher in places I developed the background trees. I started to add the trees in the foreground and started the birdhouse.



I continued to develope the pine and oak trees. Added a little hint of the small green cedars and the fallen leaves.




It started getting colder, so I quit and brought my gear in. I looked over the painting and added a little more blue to the sky and darkened the upper left corner hoping to stop the eye from following the tree out of the painting. I covered the bottom edge and top where it was fastened to the easel, signed it and called it finished. No "piddling" around with this. About two hours total.

It was too late to get the final photo, will add that tomorrow. It is supposed to rain so no golf, I should be able to finish the doggie painting.

Sketches - Ketchup, beard, eyebrow

I painted on the Boys and their Toys today, as you saw in a previous post. Tonight I did a few sketches for the Scavenger Hunt 23. #9, tomato product - I sketched ketchup with my ZIG Millennium pen and watercolors. I used the watercolor pencils and then some pan watercolors as well. You know I am a real beginner with watercolors. And in my generic sketchbook the paper isn't really made for watercolors.



#10, beard or mustache - I sketched both while Gene was watching TV and #11, my eyebrow. The last two were with my ZIG Millennium. All the sketches took about 15-20 minutes.



I started sketching with the Scavenger Hunts this summer, July, I think. I have tried to sketch for years, but have been very sporadic about it. I believe these few months of steady sketching have made a difference. More confidence and a variety of subjects I may not have tried .. a trash can, for instance. Hopefully I will continue to sketch to improve my "eye", speed and accuracy on the fly. I don't consider these drawings and do not do any pencil sketches under the ink. I have been trying various media for this to keep a fresh eye. But, no erasing even when I do use graphite pencils or pastel pencils.

I'm working on some goals for this year. The most immediate of which is to get my entries in to the Austin Pastel Society Corridor Juried Show by January 12 and my State sales taxes done by January 20. :) Not art related - play some golf and clean the house.

Featured Painting - ArtBlogs 4 U

Wow, I was selected to have the first featured painting on ArtBlogs4U. That is very nice. What a great start to the year, 2007. I joined the blog for artists a few weeks ago and Lesly Finn is doing a great job. You can read my previous post here.

There will be a featured painting by one of the artists each week. This first one is my "Peppers Window", pastel, 9 x 12 inches, pastel. It is for sale at Peppers Art Gallery in Magdalena, New Mexico. More about it on my web page. I'm working on my plein air page and there will be more photos of the work in progress soon.

Thank you, Lesly. It is a great blog. Artists, check it out and sign up.

Boys and their Toys yet again. Pastel Painting WIP

This shows the addition of more toys and a softening of Romeo's hair. I will work on shortening Romeo's leg as suggested by my personal critique club and do a few final touch ups. This is very near completion. Good thing, I tend to just stop. I'm like book authors. They get near the end, can't decide what to do with everyone, and just end it abruptly after 700 pages. Ha.

There is a lot more variation in color in the real painting. Dark and white are hard to photograph. I hope you like the painting. Interesting to work on animals. I haven't painted very many.

Scissors Sketch & Happy New Year

We went to Austin today, it is after midnight, so I guess, yesterday for our last lunch of the year with our daughters. We went to Hunan's on William Cannon near Manchaca. One of our favorite places and we are treated like family. So, I didn't paint.

I did this quick sketch to try out some new watercolor pencils that I got at the Austin Pastel Society Christmas party. I did not try the water part. :) The pair of scissors are #7 and the Q-tip is # 8 from the Scavenger hunt. They are in my Canson sketchbook. About 15 minutes.

I wish you all the best for 2007 and hope you have a wonderful HAPPY NEW YEAR!