Still Life Pastel Drawing Demonstration

This demonstration is courtesy of Dan Gray.

Visit his website to learn more about him and to view more of his work

Cherry Bomb Still Life Demo

I was out in the forest with an Oldsmobile but the rain started to fall so back into the studio with a still life for rest of the day

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Layout

I am using tobbacco coloured canson, I work all over including the background

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Adding definition to my objects

Warming up, working from light to dark

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Refining

Warming up the base and adding more blossom, refining detail

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Background

Lowering the contrast and working the background

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Final work

Working all over on detail and values, cooling the background to try and make the blossoms jump

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Cherry Bomb

18″ x 20“

Landscape Painting Lesson – How to Render & Simplify Trees

This landscape painting lesson is courtesy of Barry Waldman of Interactive Art School.

A Revolutionary Way to Learn to Draw & Paint

Student uses a Digital Camera (supplied in your Student Sign Up Kit along with Textbooks & Supplies) to take digital photos of their completed assigned Lesson Artwork for each lesson. The student sends those photos as email attachments to the teacher who draws, paints & comments on the work & posts a critique of each lesson on our WEB site, a personalized How-To-Do-It-Better Critique for the student to view 24/7/365.

Follow this link to visit the Interactive Art School!

Landscape Painting Lesson – Simplify Trees

A sculptor student asked about how one does images of trees and further how to simplify them as the complexity of painting a million leaves can make an artist batty. Some painters and sculptors want to paint every leaf…bless them…for the rest of us this mini-lesson is about:

A. Making realistic trees

B. Simplifying those trees in our images (paintings, drawings, sculpture)

First there are countless kinds of trees and then millions of variations within those– two shown here, they couldn’t be more different

(above left: photo of wide tree…….above right bare trees from my painting “Snow Gardens” below:)

We could go on and on with many other tree shapes, sizes and variations, but let’s focus on one tree, analyze it in the following steps:

I. Let’s figure out how to make the tree real

II. Let’s explore how to simplify the real tree we create in various degrees of simplicity

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On the left below is a photo of a row of Magnolia trees… confusing, right?

As a reference for a painting…lets analyze one tree:

1. The original photo

2. That photo made more contrasty to start to see the form better revealed (this is done here with photo manipulation in sketching in nature you would squint your eyes to achieve this effect)

3. I did a 3d model of the tree to show its basic underlying form

A tree – like everything we see, has a basic form or a series of basic forms as its understructure. Students often get lost, particularly with trees, in painting each leaf …while to make it real its underlying structure needs to be communicated.

To make an object seem solid, one needs to understand the following:

Study the above and also the mini-Lessons on Form (click on the blue links below):

Lesson 2 Basic Form and

Lesson 3 Advanced Form

One needs to mass the tones in groups based on the above — the darkest tones on the shadow sides of objects, middle tones in the transitions from light to dark and the lighted tones in the most light stuck areas of an object.

Just below is a painting of a group of leaves from the tree photographed above (you can paint the rest of the tree in this level of detail – I’m just not going to do it …it would take almost forever)

Now lets explore how to paint the tree simpler, then still simpler: on the left is the original photo, then a simpler painted version, then an even simpler version on the extreme right:

Left is a reprise of the source photo from above……then, the tree painted to be round in lots of colors and values…. then the another interpretation SIMPLIFIED—into three tonal masses

In my paintings above, I eliminated the sky and simplified the outer shape of the tree to better demonstrate the principals of form and the simplification.

In the right hand most simplified tree, I used only THREE color mixtures to paint the tree On the left hand side is the transitional middles tone Up through the middle is the light struck tone…then some middle tones again to step down from the high tones of the light struck leaf masses…. and…on the right side I have massed the darks…the resulting tree is simple but solid…no details, not painted leaf by leaf

POSTERIZED: Simpler still– areas are divided into a few colors – tree leaf area into just light stuck side and shadow side

(See Wikipedia definition of “POSTERIZATION” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterization

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The ultimate simplification- silhouette…First in black and white…

Then – silhouetted “forest” in color:

The trees in the foreground are darker and more vibrant (more intense color green… while the taller “forest” behind is a lighter and bluer, less intense color blue-green— this is a reflection of the concept of “atmospheric perspective”…as things get further from the viewer’s eye… they get light in tone, less chromatic (color intensive) and have less contrast (see
mini Online Lesson 4) for a fuller exploration of atmospheric perspective.

To see examples of simplified trees -see the work of these painters and photographers:

Edward Hopper*

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MCG/FH536~Gas -1940-Posters.jpg

http://ursispaltenstein.ch/blog/images/uploads_img/hopper_2.jpg

http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/06autumn/images/jenkins_fig2large.jpg

_______________________________________________ and

Fairfield Porter

http://www.tfaoi.com/am/10am/10am132.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ec/Fairfield_Porter’s

_painting_’Under_the_Elms’,_1971_-_1972.jpg/300px-Fairfield_Porter’s_painting_’Under_the_Elms’,_1971_-_1972.jpg

http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/3cm/3cm617.jpg

also:

Fairfield Porter on Mark Harden’s “Artchive” Painting titled “Amherst Campus“:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/porter/porter_amherst.jpg.html

Fairfield Porter on:

The Bridgeman Art Library:

http://www.bridgeman.co.uk/search/s_results.asp?search=fairfield+porter&stype=all&order=5&page=&view=2

_______________________________________________

and

Ansel Adams

http://www.blognow.com.au/uploads/l/Llennodo/19959.jpg

http://doors.stanford.edu/ansel-adams/iceberg-panorama.jpg

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and

Edward Hopper

* A note about Edward Hopper, the great American Illustrator and Painter – he was a master of “leaving out”, or simplifying… you can see it in his trees, his people, his houses and interiors…he leaves out detail…one fact few observers notice is that there is no glass in any windows Hopper ever painted. Study his most famous paining “Nighthawks” a picture of people seen in a late night diner in Manhattan, NYC through windows – NO GLASS.(Yes, there is a hint of it at the far left where the window curves around the corner – but not in the large part of the diner window and also, look across the street at the shop windows “Nighthawks” can be seen on the Artchive website at:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper/nighthwk.jpg.html

Look at the other Hoppers on the Artchive site like “Chop Suey”

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hopper.html

Once you get to the Hopper bio at the page above, click on the “VIEW IMAGE LIST“

To sign up for the course, click here.

Tuscan Landscape – Acrylic Painting Tutorial By Julie Shoemaker

About Julie

I am a self taught artist who has been painting and interested in art all my life. My favorite medium is acrylic due to its versatility. One of my favorite things to do is teach painting to other people. I currently teach classes and we couldn’t have more fun if we tried. It’s just so gratifying to see the excitement on student’s faces when they see what they can accomplish with a little instruction and effort. When your ready to forget the theory and produce the art, visit http://www.IamPainting.org. Learn Painting Techniques and create your own remarkable portraits or landscapes.

Tuscan Landscape – Acrylic Painting Tutorial By Julie Shoemaker

Use whichever brush you feel comfortable with. I usually use a flat bristle brush for most of my work. And remember there is no right or wrong way to paint! If your painting doesn’t turn out like mine – then congratulations! You created a unique one of a kind painting.

Sky – First wet the sky area or top half of canvas with white gesso.

Then with a little yellow and a touch of orange added to the same brush, start at bottom of the sky area and work your way up. Use long horizontal strokes. Take the strokes right off the canvas while blending the yellows and orange into the white gesso as you work upward. Gently blend right up towards the top of canvas. Wipe the brush off with a paper towel.

Now add a touch of ultramarine blue and purple to the brush and start at the top of the canvas and work your way downward in the same fashion as you did the yellows.

The bottom part of the painting is under painted with any earth tone colors. Nothing fancy here!

Use sky colors (a mixture of white blue and purple) and paint in furthest hills – mountains. Notice how these hills show very little detail and are very soft looking.

Darken the mountain (sky) color and paint in next layer of hills. You want to make sure that you let some of the previous mountains show. Keep the tops interesting with some variations.

Add some earth tone to the very distant hills. You can use browns, tan, etc. Keep it dull though. Just add white to dull paint color. These are in the center of painting.

Add some hunter green and start dabbing or scrubbing in the bushes. This should be a dull green.

Landscapes typically get darker and more vivid as you work forward.

Lay in the foreground hills. (you will do the one the left first) Make this one lighter to look like sunlight is hitting it.

To do this start on the left of the painting and pull the paint brush into the center of the painting. Notice the slope of this hill. If you want you could add some rows of green for a field of crops look. (see next picture)

Now darken the mixture and add the hill on the right. Darken it with browns or tans. Too much green will make your picture look unnatural. This hill will be painted the same way but starting on the right side of the painting pulling the paint into the painting and overlapping the previous hill. Continue painting until the entire canvas is covered.

Don’t over blend! Let variations of color show.

Now start adding the tall trees.
If you are using a flat bristle brush, hold it on the side and dab on the paint in the shape of the tree.

In the background they will be duller – or lighter. The ones in the foreground are hunter green. Add purple to the paint to darken the side that will be in shadow.

Add some tree shadows to the ground.

Add one more foreground hill in the very front. The more layers – the more depth your painting will have

Add touches of reds or oranges for flowers, and some tiny shadows if you want to. Highlight the trees. (use yellow or light green and dab in brightness on the sun side of the trees)

You could easily be finished with your painting now, and let the dramatic tall tree shadows be the focus.

Or…Add some houses. Just draw in simple house shapes paint in the shapes with “dirty white “ and red for roofs. For shadows on the house, darken the roof color under the eaves. Dry brush in some white for highlights on the roof. Add a touch of orange for lights in the houses.

Add birds – Birds are just little v’s – Practice first and keep then dainty! and sign your painting….

How To Paint Roses : Tackling a Beautiful Yet Complicated Flower

About Connie Nelson

I have always liked to draw and paint. In elementary school I was known as the “school artist”. Drawing and painting was a blissful and ‘easy’ activity for me.

I was also inspired by my father, who was a sumi painter. Still, I did not see myself an artist until after taking a job as a registered nurse. The toll exacted by the job on my body and soul made me question my purpose in life.

One fateful day, while I was still working as a nurse, I stepped into an art teacher’s studio and took my very first formal art lesson, and I have never looked back. I soon quit my nursing job and began seriously pursuing painting through continuing art lessons, supplemented by various workshops.

I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the United States, surrounded by water and mountains. It’s an enchanting place to live out an artistic life.

The world is more colorful and interesting since I became an artist; every morning I wake up and wonder what to explore next. It is a wonderful way of life. What a blessing!

Please visit Connie’s Websites to learn more about her and to view her work:

Her Art Instruction Site:

http://www.explore-drawing-and-painting.com

Her Portfolio Site:

http://www.connienelsonart.com

How To Paint Roses : Tackling a Beautiful Yet Complicated Flower

Do you find the thought of learning how to paint roses a bit daunting? All those petals and subtle shades of color! On this page I’ll use a step-by-step oil painting demonstration to show you that the process of how to paint roses is very doable. The same procedure work with acrylics, too.

I took this picture of some roses on a beautiful summer day in my kitchen. I like the soft glow of the roses and the variety of colors. The focal point is obviously the deep red rose in the middle.

My intention here is to create a quick oil study that will convey a sense of spontaneity and freshness. I want to give the viewer an impression, but avoid overworking the canvas,

Let’s started to learn how to paint roses together.

First, I prepare two copies of the main image. In one, I used image processing software to blur the picture. Squinting at a subject is a great way to spot the main shapes and tones, but it gets tiring.

A blurredimage allows me to do the same thing without getting a headache. Once I have the painting blocked in correctly, I find that details are either easier to paint or not necessary.

The second copy is a gray scale version, which helps me see the tones I need to mix for different parts. Tones are a compass that guides the mixing of colors, because everything will be tied together by tonal relationships. If the tones are right, the painting looks unified.

I use a gessoed 6”x 8” (15cm x 20 cm) mat board. I have three bristle filbert brushes (ranging from number 6 to 4) plus a small round number 1 brush for sketching and details.

My color palette consists of 4 water soluble oil colors: cadmium yellow medium, cadmium orange, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue (plus titanium white).

I limit my time to 20 minutes. I find that the less time I have, the less likely I am to fuss around, and the result is a stronger painting. It’s a technique I learned from Craig Nelson.

1) First, using the blurred image, I sketch the composition—editing out the details and smaller shapes. Even with the blurred image, I squint so I can narrow the tones down to just a few. It is important early on to catch the “thrust” (or “gesture”) of the roses. For now, I treat them as cylinders, and only depict the largest dark “crevasses” to indicate where things are going. I don’t dwell on the details.

2) Once the sketch is satisfactory, I use the largest brush to paint the center of interest: the large rose in the middle. The strokes are bold…even a bit sloppy. I mix ultramarine blue into alizarin crimson for the dark tone and adjust it by adding more alizarin crimson for middle tones.

Note that this is the more crucial stage of learning how to paint roses – initial differentiation of large masses with the correct color notes.

3) I continue to cover the large masses with different flat colors. I am still squinting to keep me from getting lost in details. The objective is still to create approximate shapes—an impression of the roses.

4) Returning to the large red rose, I add some vibrant, lighter tones over the initial darker tones. I mix a bit of white, and cadmium orange into alizarin crimson. I am careful about adding the white into the red mixture, because I want to avoid any chalkiness. Still using the big brush, I rough in the full canvas

5) Once the flat tones and large masses are laid down, I start to mix tonal variations to create more depth. I compare the new tones with the previous ones to keep the all-important tonal balance. I add some of the brightest tone to the roses in the background. As you learn how to paint roses, remember that the basic shape of a rose is cylindrical, and lighting will affect them accordingly. Here, the light is coming from the right side.

6) Using my smallest brush for added control, I paint the highlight on the middle rose. Because roses have a velvet-like matte surface, the highlight should be soft—not shiny.

7) The final stage of the painting is edge control. I want to make “soft” edges recede and to sharp edges come forward. Laying down blocks of color with the big brush, as I did earlier, is likely to leave a lot of harsh edges. They may be either where two shapes connect or where planes meet within the same shape. I use a clean brush (or my finger) to soften the edges of the top left rose and also the rose at the top right corner. I also soften the furthest petals of the middle rose to keep the focus on the sharp center of the large rose. Soft and hard edges both have their place in achieving strong visual impact.

8 ) I notice that the red rose in the middle is in danger of being overworked. So I stop.

I often do this kind of small, quick oil study to prepare for larger paintings. It is like a trial run before a long marathon. When Itackle the larger format, I have already practiced the brushstrokes and worked out the composition. It really smooths the process.

There are other benefits to this type of painting. Click here to learn why quick oil/acrylic studies will advance your painting skills.

Practice painting all the roses in front of you. Remember that artists are made, not born. You can learn how to paint roses, too!

Pastel Drawing Tutorial – Pink Orchids

THE SUBJECT

For this second pastel drawing demo, I used the picture of two pink orchids highly sunlit from the top left. The two orchid flowers protrude from the background which is composed of elongated leaves rising from the ground. The lower background is shadowed and makes the orchids stand out even more with color and shape contrast.

THE MATERIALS

Again, for this demonstration I used a 64-color set of Mungyo soft pastels (27 mm x 8 mm) and a sheet of Strathmore Pastel paper (11” x 14”) of somehow pale yellow color. This type of paper requires at least 5 mm sticks or pastel pencils to be able to fill the texture more efficiently and render details in realistic drawings.

THE PALETTE

I did not find much problem matching the colors, tones and shades on this one with my Mungyo colors but a set with more color gradations and shades is recommended.

THE DRAWING PROCESS

The following sections do not follow an exact step by step process but rather stages which contain different steps to work with drawing and coloring areas. My intention here in this second pasted drawing demo is to show more pigment addition without saturating or bloating the paper with colors that causes cloudy patches. I recommend shaking your paper from time to time to avoid the accumulation of dust in the lower parts which contaminates the already colored areas, especially the light colored areas. My expertise with soft pastel colors is not extensive so this is actually part of my pastel drawings self-teaching and learning that I publish on the Web.

STAGE 1

With my base drawing carefully and precisely drawn, I begin to match some of the lightest shades in the orchid flowers. This first layer is to slightly fill in areas which define the main subjects and to cover paper texture. White areas have been indicated. Some dark hues have also been added to the orchid. Lemon yellow and yellow ochre are also visible. As I pointed out in my first pastel demo, at this starting stage, it is important to start by just hovering the pastel sticks over the paper without applying much pressure.

STAGE 2

After putting in some coloring from Stage 1, I focus on the lower orchid and start blocking in its shape against the background area which appears a little undefined and blurred. This is yet with the lightest of the various brown and green tones of which the dark background is made. From here I extend outwardly but not far outside of the orchid enclosing area. Here I verify and constrain the orchid’s shape because my base drawing is already concealed.

STAGE 3

Following you can notice that I haven’t moved much farther from the drawing of the lower orchid. The orchid itself shows some loose colors which will need further blending and definition. The dark areas in the background have been strengthened to make the orchid contours stand out. A mosaic of related colors is noticeable which I will later fuse to produce the necessary tonalities. Some leaves have tentatively been drawn with their lightest sunlit or shadowed tones.

STAGE 4

From here I have extended to the left and right but still not much to the bottom and top areas. Light tones first for both light and dark areas to progressively obtain the right gradation and blending. Little by little, step by step and area by area the background becomes apparent and integrates with the foreground. I advance on the top orchid by filling in more areas and defining tones. Not much pigment is yet added, just an overall layer without saturating any specific area. Don’t despair on ending one main subject yet, completing it later as we advance is more rewarding and we can save time on correcting mistakes that can’t be undone otherwise.

STAGE 5

Next, I have covered the bottom with dark blue (ultramarine blue) but it will require some black to achieve the darkest hue. The leaves in the background are continuously and progressively filled with hues that intermingle with each other. Some dark ochre becomes apparent over the green areas but it will be downgraded as I darken these areas. More polishing and strengthening of colors and shades will be left for the last stages to achieve a thorough application of pigments and overall balance of color and composition as well as contrast.

STAGE 6

In advancing to the leaves at the top, the colors need to be some kind of sap green and hookers green using the light shades to match the sunlit areas. Some lemon yellow is also added on the edges of the orchids’ leaves. The upper orchid is not yet well defined or constrained against the background. I do this later as I advance to the upper half. Here, pink shades from the orchid; and pale green and lime green from the leaves are complementary colors whose interplay becomes apparent at the end of the drawing. At this stage, the background appears more integrated and less chaotic than the previous stage.

STAGE 7

To this point, after several days and paused working, an overall layer of the drawing surface has been completed. The only uncovered area is where I will put my signature. The background at the top has been filled with dark blue and some scattered black. A lot of polishing and color restating, shading, blending and texturing will ensue to help define overall color balance and contrast. Edges will be enhanced where needed with contrasting colors and shapes. In the lower background area, dark ochre predominates which will subsequently become the lighter areas when darker tones are added over. More retouching will be required to eliminate color and composition inconsistencies in the drawing.

STAGE 8

At this stage we have a pre-finished drawing. I have added my signature and the upper orchid has been mostly constrained and redefined proportionally. More time has been invested in polishing, saturating and darkening the background. From my experience in photographing orchids, orchid colors can be highly tinted and others quite pale. These contrasting colors can provide interesting results in drawing or painting orchids in any media. Orchid’s leaves, on the other hand, are almost devoid of any texture except for longitudinal divisions that produce certain color changes with light.

FINAL WORK

After much more reworking, dedication and effort on trying to achieve a more realistic approach, I treated every area separately and rendered them to the utmost. The paper texture, however, did not allow for further smoothing of the surfaces and some stippling may be noticeable. This can be overcome by using finer textured paper and trying different pastel sizes, brands and quality.

Please feel free to follow this pastel drawing process to create your own drawing and self-teaching. The process does not start if you don’t take the courage to grab your pastels and start to apply colors over the paper. It emphasizes the application of pastel from small amounts to successive layering of pigments as necessary and allowed by the drawing surface. Working this way will create more confidence in the artist and the ability and capability to handle more colors, hues, shades and tonalities to enhance pastel drawing with time. Until another art demo, best wishes in your everyday art making and take the most advantage of your pastel drawing experience. Please send me your comments to email attached below.

WEBSITE: http://www.georgemax.co.nr/

EMAIL: georgemaxart@hotmail.com

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