Pastel tips lighting in the landscape

 Rendering light in pastel

Continuing my discussion on how to paint the light in landscapes. As we develop our interests it's important to learn how to paint our subject. What are the techniques to accomplish this? This is key to learning. I turn to the masters to see how they did it. I also look at todays artists that inspire me. 

Light in water

How do you add weight to objects? Use lighting as a tool to create solidity. Back lighting or side lighting creates a dramatic look to everyday landscapes. I have a set of photos I have taken of the Stanislaus river that are full of rocks, deep mysterious water areas and places of rapid water flow. This is all back in the area next to Knights Ferry Ca. 

This painting was one result of some of my photo's

 18x24 mixed media 

This is a tree that has grown out of the rock. It was really fun to paint. My son has this hanging in his home. I did this as an acrylic painting for color and followed that with pastel on hot pressed watercolor paper. There may be some ink in this too. It probably is the most abstract painting I've done yet. But I do want to explore this more. 

The values are close but you can feel where the light is coming from (right to left). By using this side lighting effect it created dramatic line movement in the root portion of the tree. Solidity was achieved with the dramatic side shadow on the left of the tree. You don't see much detail in the shade but you can feel the heaviness of the rock. 

Thanks for looking, more on this with the next post. Happy painting. 

Lux paper review and planning the painting

 Lux paper review

Lux paper is white. It can take water, ink, acrylic under paintings. It is a sanded paper that feels very much like a 600 grit Uart paper. It can take dry application of pastel medium and the abuses with rubbing in the underpainting. It did not buckle on me at all. However, I did not soak the paper and only wet it with acrylic inks as much as necessary.

initial ink wash

I used Dewent intense sticks for this under painting. As you can see I used darker colors then I intended to finish with. My drawing is there, but not detailed. I tried to think of the darks that I wanted to make the finial painting sing on top of the darks. 

planning stage

Here you can see I worked out a lightly detailed drawing with value placement. To the right of this thumbnail I have written notes about my ideas for this piece. You will see in the end I did not add the cloud, although that can be done in another painting of this scene. I wrote the main color plan and other things like water conditions, warm and cool areas for possible color choices.  All these notations will give me some direction. As I initially draw in the big shapes I use my reference photo for the plan. I set it down at this point when I'm done and use the value study mostly during the painting process. I have the reference near by to refer to, but do not look at it much except to check cool colors against warms and small shape study. I also blurred my eyes to see the simple shapes in this initial blocking in of color. 

I started with my darks, but do make a small area of my lightest light. All color value use will always be affected by the color next to it. This dictates what color to use next to the sky, the trees and house. Initially I wanted to have the shadows in the house purple, but it wasn't working. I had to change it to a blue to get the effect I wanted. 

Also, note the soft and hard edges. I tried to use those lines to help direct the eye to the focal point. The porch next to the telephone pole. I also allow other areas of interest to the viewer in the house. The windows have on some harder edges but not really detailed. The trees are darker but take you through the color changes and edge treatment for the viewer to linger on. There can be more than one focal point in a painting. The other ones are supporting the main place that I want the viewer to see. 

11x11 "Summer Ranch"
See pastel page for sale price

I think I could of lighten up the picture better before posting. I'm finding that is necessary to get an accurate photo of the painting and it color. I will add that to this post later. I also should mention that the foreground is inviting the viewer into the picture with low value flowers and color notes. They're purpose is to invite you in to wonder around the house. Enjoy