Leaf Shadows, C&O Canal, 16″ x 12″, Pastelmat “charcoal”

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Here is maybe the last painting of the year (but maybe not!).  I sold the first painting that I did of the red leaves at the canal, so I decided to do another.  This one is more straight on and features the shadows of the leaves.  My friend Sandy pointed them out to me when I met her walking on the canal and I hope she won’t be upset that I’ve done them now twice–you should do them too, Sandy!

After the last one, where I had to do so much dark underpainting, I decided this time to try working on a dark surface.  I chose a “charcoal” sheet of Pastelmat. I love this surface, which is smooth but really rich and allows for real detail.  And I liked the color because it wasn’t completely black.  I really like beginning with my darks, so I have a hard time with black.  But having the relatively dark background helped a lot.

But I’m so used to doing underpaintings!  It was a bit of a challenge.  I began with a rough drawing using pastel pencil.  Then used the sides of hard pastels to lay in various colors.  After that, it was all Girault until the end.  Stage 1 is primarily the hard pastel. I used darker and cooler colors, in general, than what I was seeing.

In stage 2 I worked on the rock with leaves and shadows. I had a really hard time with the shadows but discovered something quite amazing.  As you can see from Stage 1, I started with a dark block of color.  But I found I really couldn’t use this to develop the reflections, so I went over it with light pastel (I may have brushed out the dark first).  Then, I added the dark shadows on top.  It worked beautifully!  This paper really IS amazing!

In Stage 3 I worked on the top of the painting and the reflections in the water, which were more difficult than some others I’ve done.  I used various greens and a little violet for the rock.  The top was rather complicated and difficult to make out.  There are several rocks covered with leaves and vines.  I tried to simplify it a bit and just lay in color, then added the crevices in the rocks and the yellow leaves over them.

My final applications were of soft pastel, using Schmincke reds in the leaves and greens in the water.

This was a more difficult picture for me as I don’t normally work in this way. But it was fun to challenge myself and good to try something different.  And I think that it was the appropriate choice for the subject matter, rather than an underpainting.

Happy New Years to you all!

Dancing Trees on the Potomac, 24″ x 18″, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting after alcohol

Water initially completed

Today was a wet and miserable day–the perfect day to spend with friends in the studio.  I began this painting two weeks ago today during an afternoon session and was happy to finally have time to get back to it.  This was a complicated painting!  A lot of layers of stuff going on here!  But I thought it was a happy picture, with the dark back-lit trees against a brilliant sky, the flowing river, and the lovely yellow fall leaves.

I began by drawing the trees and getting them in the position that I wanted, then drew in the big shapes of background island, water and foreground.  For the underpainting, I chose a darker yellow green than I’ve used lately and I really liked the way it looked with the warm orange-green trees on the island. I used the local color in the island as I knew that it was going to be complicated to go over it and didn’t want really odd colors.  I used darker green for the water and a warm reddish color where you can see the bottom of the river. I chose a turquoise to go under the browns at the bottom, as a cool under warm solution.

I began by painting the sky around the trees.  I started with warm blue greens and later added blue violets on top.  I used aqua at the bottom and then a light whitish yellow green to really give life to the sky just about the tree line.

I painted the tree trunks, using dark violet and dark red Ludwigs. (Much later, I lightened the parts of the trees above the tree line, but it’s hard to see in the image.  The trees would appear lighter there with so much light around them.).  I worked next on the trees on the island that form the backdrop. I used a combination of violets (at bottom), dark greens and oranges.  The orange on the far left is a Roche pastel that was amazingly soft when I applied it.

Next I did the water.  I used Giraults in grayed blues, blue greens and blue violets.  In order to get the colors around the trees I blended the first layers with my fingers and even used a rubber-tipped blender along the sides of the trees.  Then I used three different Art Spectrum soft tinted whites to put in the foam/highlights on the water.  For the area close to the shore, I used Girault warm neutrals with blues on top and went back and forth a few times.

The bottom was the most challenging part for me.  I went back and redrew the shadows and rocks with charcoal. I also changed the shadow on the lower mid-section. The two shadows were connected by a horizontal piece (as seen in underpainting) but I had no idea what was causing it and chose to leave it out.  Getting enough detail, the right values, and soft edges was a challenge and my friends gave me much-needed critiques along the way!  I was happy when I added the yellow color along the top of the dirt bank and let it lead into the water.

Finally, I added the smaller branches with a Girault and the leaves with various soft greens and yellows.

In my classes this winter, we’ll be discussing layering of pastel.  I realized that this painting required a different, more complex layering than what I’m going to teach–the layering of subject matter!  I hope it’s useful to see how I began and proceeded with the painting.  I never would have done a subject like this when I was first beginning!