Women’s National Democratic Club, 24″ x 20″, Pastel Premiere white, fine grit

Drawing

Underpainting before alcohol

Underpainting after alcohol

My third and last post of the day.  I definitely HAVE had a productive month of July!  I completed the four street scenes then did this 24″ x 20″ painting of the building that houses the Women’s National Democratic Club on Q and 17th Streets.  It’s a grand old building and the color of the brick along with the aqua-colored copper is quite striking.  I took several images of it and ended with a cropped view that I think produces great shapes and contrasts.  There’s a flag in a lovely position on the left, and peaking out of the bushes is a blue donkey with flag colors in its ears!

I found a packet of large sheets of white Pastel Premiere and had my framer mount them to gatorfoam.  What I didn’t realize was that these sheets were a fine (600?) grit, not the rougher paper I normally use. I’m not sure where I got this!  I would never consciously order it.  Now I have four more nicely mounted sheets to do something with.  Ah well.

I did the drawing then the underpainting with hard pastel and alcohol.  I won’t be doing this again! I knew that the paper didn’t like alcohol. It really doesn’t!  It actually created some strange effects, however, that added to the texture of the building that weren’t completely unwanted. However, I’ll have to use watercolor on the other four panels.

I spent a lot of time drawing the building, but I skipped a step and didn’t do an initial drawing.  Thus, I forgot that the 24″ is not in proportion to the width of the 8 x 10 photo I was using.  But I was able to add more to the left side. Even so, I ended up doing some significant redrawing as I went along. It’s a complicated building with the domed part having maybe five sides?

Due to the lack of texture in the paper, the pastel went on rather flatly. So I decided I’d just keep things simple, such as the tree in the upper left corner.  I kept it to a flat, simple shape and liked it.  Did something similar when I got to the tree in upper right but there are more sky holes and pieces of light on it.

The windows were hard–getting them the right shape, straight, lighting, the whole thing.  And I really didn’t want to over do them.

But nothing was as hard as the donkey!!!  In my drawing, you’ll see that I made him too big and prominent.  After redrawing several times, I realized he was too high up and needed to be down in the bushes.  This is one of the donkeys from the days of “Animals on Parade” that included donkeys and elephants all around DC.  The eyes on this one are quite strange!  But I think I’ve finally captured him pretty well.

I didn’t like the landscaping at all and decided to simplify it–don’t tell them!  I just used some clumps of pinkish flowers and kept it all simply done.  I liked the Japanese maple, however.

This was obviously done for my upcoming show.  I’m hoping they might want it.  It was fun to do and I learned something about painting painted donkeys!

Four cans and initial color on UART

After solvents applied

Blue Earth pastel added on top

I noted in my last post that I recently decided to try a different solvent for my latest painting, Summer Greens. I found cans in my home studio cabinet and decided to do a test of them to see how they differed.

Using a sheet of UART 320, I divided it in four and used some of the warm colors I was planning to use in the underpainting.  The four solvents were Gamsol, Turpenoid, odorless mineral spirits, and denatured alcohol.  I bought the Gamsol years ago to try out oil (gave it up fast!).  I bought the denatured alcohol because Duane Wakeham used it.  Not sure about the others but over the years I’ve studied with a number of people who recommended one thing or another.

My normal solvent for hard pastel is 90% isopropyl alcohol that I get at CVS or Walgreens.  Really cheap and it dries instantly.  I wanted to see what benefits these others might have. I also remembered an experience with my painting Snow and Lock that I painted and sold in 2015.  I used one of these (maybe turpenoid?) as the solvent and it allowed me to really work the underpainting in a beautiful way.  But when I got to the painting, there was one place on it that I couldn’t get the pastel to stick to. It had become too smooth and slick.  The turpenoid definitely had the most oily feel to it and I think it must have been what I used.

I tried to use similar colors in each box.  Then added the solvents.  The Gamsol went on really nicely and I took an immediate liking to it.  It also dried quite quickly.  I liked the way the pastel looked afterwards. Definitely brighter than when I use my regular alcohol, I think.  The Turpenoid was the worst of these.  It was rather yellowish and it darkened the colors and it refused to dry!  When I tried to add pastel over it, it was gummy!  I quickly ruled it out.  Perhaps some of you use this with good effect?

The mineral spirits and denatured alcohol both went on nicely and dried quickly and seemed to be similar.  These have the advantage of being cheaper than the Gamsol, which was designed for artists and sold in art stores (can is smaller too!).  The others are all available at your local hardware store.

One issue with some of these solvents is disposing of them.  Alcohol can go down the sink (or on the grass when painting outside) and that’s why I’ve always favored it.  I don’t think Gamsol can be disposed of in this way.  Those of you who are oil painters have more experience with this than I do.  I’d be interested to know what people like best.

I definitely thought that the color was more brilliant with the Gamsol, but then I covered it up so not sure it matters!!!

Summer Greens, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting done with gamsol

Partially completed painting

This past week I really was in the mood for pure landscape, after completing 5 paintings from Dupont Circle!  I took a walk with my cell phone past a small glade of woods I frequently pass. The light was beautiful and I took a number of pictures.  I really liked this scene with the path, the strips of light and shadow and the soft blues overhead.

I was also in the mood for doing a better underpainting.  I decided to use a combination of violets, reds, oranges, and pinks under the greens.  Then I decided that it would be nice to use something other than straight alcohol as a solvent.  I found four cans of different solvents in my home closet and decided to do a test.  I’ll do a separate post for the test. I opted for Gamsol for this painting.  It set the pastel into the paper nicely and it dried quickly.  I think it also retained more of the brilliance of the pastel than regular isopropyl alcohol does.

For this painting, I used primarily Blue Earth pastels–the ceruleans and blues, greens, and turquoise.  Used Girault for the branches and for the detail in the bottom.  What I loved was the way the Blue Earth layer on the 320 UART.  Using a soft touch and close values, you can really produce nuanced color–and that’s what a scene like this is all about!

I was worried about the complexity of the subject but I worked from what was underneath or behind to what was in front.  So I began the upper left with a light blue and the upper right with darker blues.  Then I put the lighter and darker greens on top, letting the blue areas show through.  I tried various colors for the sky holes and finally used one of the lightest cerulean whites.  It was in the gray column so it had warmth to it and it seemed to be just right.  The light yellow was too yellow, and the Girault light yellow just didn’t go on as well.  So this very light blue worked perfectly.

The trees in the center are covered in Kudzu.  There is a large blue tree in the back, and the center set of bushes has kudzu vines in sunlight.  It forms a rather nice blanket on the tops of the bushes (but its probably killing them!!!)  I used the darkest blue Blue Earth to lay in the initial color for this, as you can see in the partially completed shot.  I could then put in a dark turquoise (cool green) and gradually add lighter colors.

The foreground was probably the most challenging part.  Getting the angle right helped a lot.  The light area in the middle was easy but as the sunlight cancelled out the detail.  But the bottom was more of a challenge.  I began by layering in various colors of Blue Earth then I went over that with linear strokes of Giraults to give the sense of grasses in shadow.  This worked quite well.

I really enjoyed doing this painting. Years ago I would have been scared to tackle something like this but somehow it’s become pretty instinctive!

Pink Hydrangea, 20″ x 16″ UART 320

Drawing

Initial sketch of figure

Underpainting prior to alcohol

Today I finished my fourth street scene from Dupont Circle. I chose this photo because I liked the hydrangea and the shadows on the sidewalk.  However, there was no figure in it and I decided it really needed one.  So I used a reference shot of a woman I saw the same day, added a hat to her right hand and thought that might work.

My primary problem with adding figures that aren’t there is getting the proportions right. I decided that the 2″ figure I’d drawn would be about right for the painting.  However, I realized that in the drawing, she is heading to the right and I had to have her going straight down the sidewalk. As much as I liked the hat, I decided it was a little too much and not necessary.

I did another somewhat arbitrary underpainting. However, I used green under the reads and a light orange under the light warm greenish building at far right.  I decided not to touch the figure.  I did the same brush down with alcohol, avoiding the figure, but forgot to film it!  Sorry.  But you’ve seen enough of these.

I have two competing centers of interest in this painting–the shadows and bush and the figure.  Once you put a figure in, that’s it!   But I named it for the hydrangea and I think it makes a pretty strong statement, encroaching on the side walk as it does.

For the sidewalk, I layered a number of warm and cool colors of the same value, ending with warm in the foreground.  The shadows were begun with one purple but then I added some darker grayed violet and a lighter warm brown.  I felt that the neutral helped soften the effect of the violet.  It’s still pretty strong though.

The background and cars were a challenge.  I basically just layered in some colors for the background (at end of street) but had to do a lot of tinkering to get the cars looking right.  Used a pink on the ones in sunlight to tie the color to the flowers and sidewalk.  Made the bag red to help connect that to the red brick building.

I’ve enjoyed doing this series.  I have one more, probably more difficult painting to do of the Women’s National Democratic Club building, then I think it will be time for some straight landscape!

Lavender House on Q, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Graphite drawing

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Painting in process showing redrawn charcoal lines

Finished my third Dupont Circle street scene today and decided on what the fourth will be. This one was from my second visit to the area and it was the first picture I took. I knew immediately that I would be painting it–a lavender house!  And with a yellow house next door. And wonderful light hitting the doorway of the English basement, as well as oak-leaf hydrangeas in light pointing to the doorway!  There was no question!

I spent most of one Monday doing the drawing and underpainting.  While I spent a lot of time on the drawing, I still didn’t get it right.  (Note: I printed out a B&W photo to help me with it, but accidentally mailed it to a friend in prison!!! Ah well).  For the underpainting, I used complements with violet under the yellow and yellow under the violet.  The orange in the doorway was important as it stood out after the alcohol wash.  I did what I’ve been doing and washed it down from top to bottom with a wide brush and a lot of alcohol.

When I came back to it, I realized that the drawing wasn’t correct and that the windows were too high up.  Given the very washy underpainting, I was able to use charcoal to redraw the windows and lines of the lavender building.  Then I was finally ready to paint!

I started with the yellow building on the left and tried to mix complements for the shadows but it didn’t work very well.  So I used a violet in the windows but a darker value of yellow for the shadows.  The same was true in the lavender building.  I tried adding a warm browning color to the shadows and a green, but they didn’t work well. So I used a darker grayer violet for most of the shadowed areas on the left and a very dark red violet for the shadows on the right.

Another challenge was indicated the more sunlit areas on the violet building. I resolved it by choosing a lighter redder violet than what I’d been using. There was enough warmth and difference to create a subtle glow.

You’ll notice that in the beginning stages of the painting I didn’t include the newspaper on the walk.  I decided to add that (as well as lengthening the stairs) and I used some of the same violet from the building on the newspaper.  I really like the way it carries the color to another location.

The red color of the stairs and wall over the lower doorway was difficult to achieve as I had it in differing light conditions.  For the dark area, I used the same Ludwig as what was in the shadows on the right wall.  Then added some brown below, and red to the right with pinky orange in the sunlit areas.

My biggest challenge was the area at the top of the stairs.  In the photo, there is a tall wispy tree with green leaves covering that area–right in the middle.  I knew I didn’t want to include it.  I began by putting in the railing and it looked dreadful.  Then, I thought maybe a potted plant.  Tried a red geranium and hated it.   Then realized I could just bring out a branch from the right to cover some of it up.  Much happier with that solution.

The doorway was the easy part.  Ludwig eggplant with a slightly lighter red violet applied in strips to inidcate the bars.  A grayed green in the sunlit area, as well as on the wall to the left of the door.  What I really liked is the way the violet proceeds down to the right of the door.  Compositionally, I find this very satisfying.

The greenery scared me a bit, but I used mainly soft pastels and did it fairly quickly. I liked the dappled lighting on the plants at bottom and the hydrangeas.

This was fun and rewarding to paint.  My next one will be more of a street scene, perhaps with a person again.

Dupont Roses, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Painting, stage 1

Painting, what I thought was done

I spent yesterday in the studio with several long-time friends and fellow pastel artists.  I put the finishing touches on a painting I started some weeks ago, before our trip to Colorado.  I had thought it was done and had filmed it. But when I looked at the image, I knew that I wasn’t happy with it.

After my last quickly drawn painting, I spent more time with the drawing.  But I went pretty fast with the underpainting! Pretty ugly I think!  But it did the trick. You can see that with the alcohol, all the major shapes are there and clearly defined, even though I used my new technique of brushing it down with a lot of alcohol.

In real life, the roses are a deep cool red and the stairway is an uninteresting puce-like color.  With the red orange in the building and brick wall, I just instinctively went for the blue greens for the stairs. And I decided to make the roses more of a red orange as well.  For the doorway in the back, I painted it very loosely and simply.  There were two complicated light fixtures on either side, which I removed.

I completed the painting up to “painting stage 1” and came back another day.  I knew that i didn’t like the yellow I had used in the door frame.  It didn’t go with the orange at all. So I used a light Ludwig orange to got rid of the yellow.  Much happier!  I then worked on the greenery.  I didn’t have my Ipad on that day and only had a B&W photo. So I couldn’t see where the roses actually were.  When I looked at the color image again, I realized that there were roses lower down which added to the curvature of the colors leading up to the green vine.

My goal yesterday was to tone down the blue green stairs, add the additional roses, change the color of the sidewalk (which was too much like the brick wall) and complete the roses and highlights on the greens.  I used some warm neutral Schminkes in several values to add a brownish tone to the large part of the stairway on the left. I used the same color in the brick walk.  I didn’t change the rest of the stairway  at all, but I felt that this made enough of a difference.  It wasn’t quite so “in my face”!  I added some lighter, brighter orange to the brick near the doorway.  (By the way, this is an English basement and there is a slightly lighter area of color in it with an arc of dark above. You have to look hard to see it in the photo, but it’s clearly there in the painting.  I’m aiming to paint some of the buildings with English basements as they are one of the defining characteristics of Dupont Circle.)

The reddish wall is too bright in the photo, a common problem of photography (and this isn’t digital!).

I began a new painting yesterday of a lavender building with a yellow one next to it.  Nice complements!  Will get back to it later this week.

Happy 4th of July to you all. It’s a wonderful holiday, despite someone’s efforts to turn it into self aggrandizement!

A Stroll in Dupont Circle, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Drawing

Hard pastel underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting with alcohol

Painting, stage 1

So it’s IAPS time and I’m not there!  First time since 2003 that I’ve missed a conference. It was intentional but worked out well as I had my second cataract surgery this past Monday. I’m doing great and am happy to have it over with.  I miss seeing so many lovely people and the wonderful paintings in the show, not to mention the Terry Ludwig display.  But I REALLY don’t need more pastels right now!!!

I recently, somewhat belatedly, received the issue of the Pastel Journal with the Pastel 100 in it.  I was particularly taken by the landscape painting of Nancy Nowak’s called A Stroll in the French Quarter.  It was SO wonderfully loose and expressive and I said “why can’t I do this”!  It gave me inspiration.

A second inspiration is the fact that I’m having a show in Dupont Circle next year at the Women’s National Democratic Club.  I’ve not painted this area, but it’s so easy to get to and has always been one of my favorite places. I’ve decided to focus on the townhouses with English basements, which really make the place distinctive. This is a lovely time of year with foliage and shadows and flowers.  So I plan to make several photo trips.

So back to getting looser.  I started with a very loose drawing in my sketchbook, using a graphite stick to focus on shapes rather than lines.  I then put in a fairly simple drawing on the board.  I spent a lot less time on the drawing than I normally do.  In most ways it was OK, but I didn’t do enough measuring and ended up with the row of houses coming a little too close to the street.  I was trying so hard to focus on value shapes, but with buildings, it IS important to have some of the basic things established!  I did get the placement of the sidewalk and the width of the red house and these were key.

For the underpainting, I went a little crazy!!!  I decided that in order to see what I was doing I would use warm under warm and cool under cool. I used yellow green Nupastel for the sidewalk and other sunlit places and a bright orange for the building, and sunlit foliage.  I didn’t stick to any particular color scheme, just went with basic value and temperature. I then got out the alcohol and a wide flat brush and brushed it down using a lot of alcohol.  Good thing I didn’t spend hours on the drawing, eh??!!!  It actually worked, however.  Having used bright colors, I could clearly enough see where the major warm and cool shapes were and the buildings.

I started on the left side with the red building, then moved down to the bottom of the painting, putting in the sidewalk and foliage.  I normally work from the top down, but the top was the most nebulous part of the photo, so the bottom was a lot easier to deal with.  I used nothing but Giraults to begin with and kept the light areas of the buildings and sidewalk fairly dull so as to be able to brighten them with softer pastel later.

I worked fairly fast and tried to keep my edges soft and my strokes suggestive and loose.  The buildings to the left of the red one were partially covered by the tree, so it wasn’t real easy to see what was going on.  I tried to indicate a balcony, windows, and shadows.  Then I put in the tree and sky, using a pale aqua. I started with a yellow and decided it was way too bright.  (In the photo, the sky was white, of course. )

The figure was an issue.  If you look at the drawing, you’ll see something coming down each side of it. I thought she was pushing a baby carriage. However, when I put on my reading glasses-now much needed!–I saw that the figure was actually riding on a scooter of some sort. So I decided to change it to a simple woman walking and changed an arm to like like it is in front of her.  I was much happier with it.

I used a Ludwig yellow to brighten up the sidewalk and stairs and put a little Ludwig red on the house. I used  a Schmincke to brighten the flowers and some Blue Earth greens for the garden greenery.  I had used too much green in the windows and tried to soften them with a beige color, but I was trying hard NOT to overdo them.

I’m pretty happy with this attempt at a more expressive painting. I’ll keep working on it and see where it leads me.

Yellow Farmhouse, West Harris Rd, UART 320, 20″ x 16″

Underpainting

Underpainting with alcohol

Initial painting of house

I’ve been busy teaching and getting ready for my second cataract surgery.  But I finished a painting of a Montgomery County farmhouse today after struggling with the color. The house is all yellow, but much of it is in shadow and I had a hard time getting the color to work right.  I had many shots of the house but really liked this head-on view with the large bush at left and the roof cut off at top.  I made the sky greener than it was, which made it sunnier and more cheerful.

The light is coming from the left, but there are also skylights in the small and larger roof, which brought light under the eaves–a strange place for it!  It also seemed to be coming from below in places, like the stairs.  I tried to follow the photo fairly closely, but had to do what looked right in some places.

One of the things that really attracted me to this was the green painted roofs of the porch, along with the blue violets in the windows.  It seemed like a “house of many colors”!  My friend Sunny says the green is there to fool the flies which think it’s the sky!  Hadn’t heard that one before but I loved the color anyway.

The yellows were the biggest challenge.  I started by using blues and violets in the shaded areas, such as the large triangle about the door.  But looking at other pictures, I realized that this was all yellow paint, so I had to add some dull yellow to it.  I used some yellow greens and brownish yellows in the porch areas that were in shadow.  I ended up with a brighter yellow than what is on the house, but that was fine with me.  The railing catching the light was one of the nicest details.
For the lattice under the porch, I used a dark underpainting. Then I added some dark blue Girault and pushed it into the picture with my fingers.  Then I went over it with parallel then crossed lines of one color. I added some pieces of darker color into the holes.  I also blurred it a bit and added some slightly darker color over it, so that it wouldn’t look too artificial.  I was happy with the way it came out.  Putting some small plants in front also helped.

Next week is IAPS and I won’t be there.  First conference I’ll miss since I started going in 2003.  I don’t think I’ll miss it at this point but I’ll miss seeing the wonderful friends that I’ve made over the years.  If you are going, I hope you have a wonderful time.

Hello Friends

Snowball Vibernum, McCrillis Gardens 20″ x 26″, Pastel Premiere white (unmounted)

Reference photo (untouched)

Watercolor wash added to paper

Before adding the flowers and additional stems

Today I put the finishing touches on a painting I began a week ago today.  I really had NO idea whether I be would successful with this or not.  The reference photo is pretty dreadful!  I used it for the pattern of the trees, which I liked and decided to emphasize.  In order to get away from all green and a thousand small branches and flowers, I started with watercolor and went for a lot of red violets, along with greens and yellow greens.  The yellow in the sky gave a lovely glow that I knew I wanted to retain.  In the photo you can see little bits of blue sky, but I wanted NO blue in this.

I was concerned about the paper.  I realized that I’d like to use watercolor, that I wasn’t sure I wanted to waste a mounted board on what might be a disaster, and that I had a lot of 20 x 28 sheets of white Pastel Premiere in a nice grit (320?).  My primary concern was that I know how much this paper buckles, and it did.  I put glassine and cardboard and a lot of PJ’s on it for my 3 hour class and it helped.  But there were still small ridges that were a problem.

Due to the ridges, I found that Giraults didn’t work very well in the initial layers.  SO–I got out my box of Henri Roche’s and used them.  They are softer than the Girault and went on beautifully, while not being too soft and mucky.

Composition:  a problem!  Not a lot in this photo. But I did see a path leading into the picture and and loved the trees.  I decided to lead the eye back on the left with greens and distant dogwood, then into the picture with the darks of the path. I added yellow flowers in sunlight along the path.  You can see the finished result before I got into all of the detail.   For the flowers, I used various greens and red violets (all soft) and very soft Schminckes for the sunlit parts.  Very pale greens and a yellow.  (I used another reference photo of a bush in sun!)

This was one of those picture that you’re never if its finished.  But I signed and filmed it and am moving on to another house painting–so much more defined!!! It was fun taking the challenge on this one however, and it has a rather mysterious look to it due to the sky and the lovely large balls!

Bluebells at Carderrock, 24″ x 18″, Pastel Premiere “Italian clay”

Initial drawing

Partial underpainting, stage 1

Partial underpainting, stage 2

Beggining to paint the bottom

I haven’t posted in awhile but I recently completed another 24 x 18 in my “Local Wonders” series.  Every spring there is a lovely carpet of Virginia bluebells in various areas of VA and MD.  The closest to me is along the Billy Goat Trail at the area called Carderrock. It’s an easy walk and I enjoyed going there with one of my pastel friends.  The overwhelming sense was of soft spring blues and greens, including the river and the water.  My painting is more literal than I might have liked, but I couldn’t figure out what else to do with it.  I decided to work on the “Italian clay” Pastel Premiere rather than UART and didn’t begin with an underpainting.  I began this painting several weeks ago prior to hosting an out of town guest and doing various other things.  The beginning–sky, background hills, water and trees were all done in the first session. I started with hard pastel, didn’t like them. Tried Girault. They didn’t feel right either.  So I used my softer pastels and that seemed to work. That was how the painting looked for several weeks.

When I came back to it last Friday (with an opening that night!), I decided that I really needed an underpainting for the bottom of the picture.  All that light brown was too much! Using hard pastels–a dark blue, browns and greens–I roughed in the basic shapes of the plants and path.  I chose the dark blue because I wanted the painting to be all blues and greens (in addition to the warm earth tones in the path).  I used a wide brush and a lot of alcohol and brushed it down, losing most of my shapes!  But at least it was good and dark.  I then used softer pastels to put the dark blue shadows back in.  When I got to the green plants, I used the Giraults and they were just right. I could loosely fill areas using the sides, then add details with the edges.

I really liked the way the light on the path helps lead the eye into the picture towards the trees and water.  And there was some lovely light hitting the flowers as well.  I used a blue violet Schmincke for the bluebells and where there was light, I added some soft light pink to them. That did the trick!  Before finishing I brought some pieces of green tendrils over some of the flowers.  They still look like they are sitting on top–but that’s what they do!

I’ve never painted the bluebells before. I was worried about the level of detail and the ability to get them in. I have to say that doing the underpainting REALLY helped a lot. I had it mostly done for the opening that night.