Thursday, October 2, 2008

5th Week of Pastel Class

Setup - It always amazes me how lackluster a photo can be. The setup in the studio was full of reflected light and pizzazz. I guess that's why I'm an artist and not a photographer. I'm never able to capture the pizzazz in a photo. This really was like building a theater set, which is Deb's background. I'm really enjoying learning how to do this.

This is 11" x 14" on Belgian Mist Wallis sanded paper. The black is a combo of NuPastel and black Rembrandt pastels. These are harder than the Ludwigs that I usually use.

Constructing the Darks - What I have "constructed" is the core shadows and the cast shadows. I have seen artists write books about this but never quite understood it. It gives a whole new meaning to thumbnail sketches. In a thumbnail you are trying to see if the darks make a good design. If I had been doing thumbnail sketches on this group of objects, I could now move them around and do another "constructing the darks" and decide which design was more pleasing.


Laying in the Lights - My pot went a little wonkie, but is fixable. This is only the first layers of lights. What is left now (for next week's class) is to continue to layer and refine colors and shapes. My values on the lights of the onions is a little dark but I should be able to fix this as well.

Observations:

- In this method of painting, things are either in the light or the dark. Even though the background is black (see setup pic), the right side is in the light and therefore is not really a dark. Big lightbulb moment!!

- More time spent during the setup results in alot less uncertainty when you start painting.

- There are probably more observations but they are still floating around in the gray matter in my brain this morning.

Thanks for following my adventure!

7 comments:

Regina said...

Thanks for sharing your process & your "light bulb" moments. You are really clarifying some points I've been trying to learn.

Unknown said...

Hi Regina! I'm glad this is clarifying some points for you....I know it is for me.

Good to "see" you!

Rita said...

Thanks for sharing this info with us Cindy.
I've really gotten into doing still-lifes lately and have only recently started attempting to set up my own compositions (as opposed to working from other people's ref pics). I have a new appreciation for the work that goes into all the pre-planning involved and with this post you've really put it into words. Sharing your "light bulb" moments has been great also! :)

Thanks again!

Karen Hargett said...

Cindy thanks for sharing - makes me want to set up a still life and try it. I like how the red onions are looking.

Unknown said...

Hi Rita...I'm so happy to hear you are doing your own still lifes. I think I have learned more from making that leap than any other. I don't have many "light-bulb" moments at my age, but when I have them I will certainly share them. I'm glad they help.

Thank you Karen! Set up that still life!!

Brenda Boylan said...

Hi Cindy,

I really like how you show how you have set up the actual still life...inside a box like station, with the items placed, the light source, etc...very informative!

Unknown said...

Thank you Brenda! You were my inspiration to get back into pastels....I hope you are doing well.