Hydrangea Pastel Demo

I was really jazzed to try to complete the Demo which I began in the class. As you saw, the water color under-painting on the white sanded surface gives one lots of options in developing a pastel painting. Using Nu-Pastel, and softer pastels back and forth the piece went through a number of changes as it was developed. This is pretty much how it all began, when I left you on Thursday.

I thought it would be boring to keep doing the Demo. My usual purpose in doing a classroom demo, is to get you started in a new way.

Here I did some leaf drawing with a dark nu-Pastel stick, and filled in some "mass tones" (the general color of an area). Each flower head had a little different division of the predominantly pink/burgundy and green tones to make it more interesting.





Here I whittled down the vase, which kept growing as I worked on the interior stalks of the flowers. In removing with water, I softened and added more turquoise in the background. A combination of wet (water) and the side of a Nu-Pastel were used to remove, replace, and soften the background.




I am interested in the background here, and went back into the piece with water and Viva towel. Now there are watery looking passages which I may or may not keep. Pastel is a very forgiving medium, especially when used on a surface that allows for various kinds of repairs, wet removal, dry brushing the surface, kneaded eraser, and resurfacing if needed.

Further articulation of dark and lights within the color scheme. One is always looking for light, medium, and dark in the "value" of the colors. The darks carry the eye of the viewer around the painting. Notice how the vase has grown in width, I will have to deal with in a later step which is when I finally noticed how it deviated from the set up I had right in front of me.

Detail showing drawing, water color areas showing through,opaque passages of soft and hard pastel, using the stix on the side, with the point, blending by softening an area with Viva towel wrapped around my finger.



This was the original bouquet. It was necessary to find and define color areas within each flower head. The arrangement of color, line, shadow areas, lights and darks, interesting shapes, exaggerated or realistic will make for an interesting and individual interpretation of this bouquet. Doing yet, a second painting from this set up, will be more expressive and easier. Better yet, do the second painting from the first painting only - toss the bouquet.

I will carry darker, and mid tone values and color into the area on the upper left to integrate it with the rest of the painting. I am about 3 hrs into the piece.

One needs to develop the entire surface, all at the same time. I have been concentrating too heavily on the pinks shapes, and now I see the the green and blue "heads" to the left are under developed.

This is almost done, there will be more accent darks moving the eye into the upper left, and balancing the composition. As long a the dark value is the same as the colors used, I can vary dark green, dark blue, dark purple as linear points of interest and broken varied outlines.

The ever growing in width vase, which got fat AGAIN, will get special slimming attention before I can call it quits.

The class inspired some homework for me, and perhaps for you too?

If you enjoy this sort of Blog stuff as I do the work, I am happy to send the "lessons" by e-mail.