Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[terri]

sorry Terri - i had to paint another one - now you’re really going to have to step it up. I think I’m a bit obsessed with painting cherry blossoms right now. This one is from a tutorial on YouTube. I wanted to try an “atmospheric” background. I didn’t have indigo so tried to make my own with pthalo blue and Payne’s grey. I didn’t go dark enough. But I’m happy with the flowers - I like the white with the darker stamens.

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Brilliant! Your cherry blossoms look so delicate. I like your background, you did just fine without having the same colors from the tutorial.

I hope to finish mine tomorrow. I ended up with a strange composition from mashing together a couple of ref photos, but I'll get it done. It's great to be playing with the oil pastels again, despite being so out of practice!

 

[snowbear]

So now I’m going to have to do a second.

 

[terri]

I'm about 90% done with mine - about time to start cleaning up the glorious mess from dragging out so many oil pastels. The blossoms turned out okay, but I'm not too happy with my boring background and still tinkering.

BUT - it's been a fun exercise. Now it just needs to stop raining so I can get a decent cell phone pic. It's been dark in here all day.

 

[snowbear]

Final (I think). Used a piece of sponge to blot on some crimson. Thinking about #2. MLSIL won't be down this weekend so I should have some time.

 

[terri]

Used a piece of sponge to blot on some crimson.

Interesting technique - and very effective! It needed this nice boost of color, I think. That's a very nice scene.

 

[snowbear]

I'm not super happy with it. It's a small work and I think the sponge pores were a bit too big. I basically made squares with both the lighter red (I think it's labeled carmine) and the darker crimson, laying the pencil color heavy. I then used a small piece of natuaral looking sponge, dipped it in water, then rubbed it on the color squares. Dabbing the trees gave me dark "streaks", which I went back and blotted with the (mostly) cleaned damp sponge to even it out.

I got a pack of three or four sponges a good while back, probably from Michaels.

I'm thinking of doing on of my photos, so it will sort of resemeble what Sharon did, but pen and ink. Instead of washes, Like I've done in the past, I'm thinking cross-hatching. Most of my inks and my dip pens are still in a box, somewhere. I did find these: a three pack (a gift from son #1 a few years ago) of iroshizuku (by Pilot) and the glass pen. The colors are brown, a bright magents, and a bright lighter blue; almost perfect as a limited palette.

 

[terri]

@snowbear : would be interesting to see your cross hatching with these inks! They look beautiful. I'm afraid of ink, but I see how beautiful it looks alone, or adding dimensions and lines in watercolors, so I get how versatile it is. In the right hands.


Here are my cherry blossoms:

I'm okay with how the blossoms turned out - I'm not good with flowers, but these particular blooms are pretty straightforward. I forgot - and then remembered why - I don't like Pastelmat (sanded) heavy art paper for oil pastels. The sanded surface naturally eats up the pastel and blending doesn't happen until you get multiple layers going. PITA!

I picked up a random light blue that I'd peeled the paper off of (easy to lay on its side) for the background, and dragged it over the paper, then used Turpenoid and brush to dissolve it so I'd get a quick background. I realized I'd never done it on this paper, and it looked a bit mottled from the start. I went ahead and did the rest of the painting, then tried to play with darkening the edges with various other blues.
It looks pretty crappy, IMO. And after awhile I realized that I was just playing with my little crayons, looking at the pretty colors and not really aiming for anything anymore. So - she's done! Oh, details: 9x12" Pastelmat paper, with Mungyo Gallery Artist Soft, and Neocolor oil pastels.

 

[SquarePeg]

Love it! Especially the flowers being at different angles - it gives it a lot of interest.

 

[snowbear]

Wonderful, terri. The texture in the blue makes me think of water.

 

[snowbear]

OK, number two - pen and ink. I just picked two blossoms and a twig. Sinve the three-pack doesn't include green, I left off leaves. It's not a favorite but it's OK for a ten-minute sketch.

 

[terri]

Love it! Especially the flowers being at different angles - it gives it a lot of interest.

Wonderful, terri. The texture in the blue makes me think of water.

Thanks to you both! I'm feeling somewhat better about it.

@snowbear : that's pretty sweet for 10 minutes of work! I like the cross hatching here. Your set of inks was perfect here!

It's funny but neither of the ref photos I looked at even showed any leaves. Just flower clusters. It seems a bit bare-branched without them but since I don't know their shape, I just let it go.

 

[snowbear]

@snowbear : that's pretty sweet for 10 minutes of work! I like the cross hatching here. Your set of inks was perfect here!

It may bave been a couple minutes mre or less. I did a very light outline in pencil, then the ink. I was working at a TV tray so I only opened one jar at a time: Brown, then the magenta, then blue. The magenta is a bit darker than I remember but I thnk it works.

@snowbear :

It's funny but neither of the ref photos I looked at even showed any leaves. Just flower clusters. It seems a bit bare-branched without them but since I don't know their shape, I just let it go.

We are "special" in DC! They resemble other fruit tree leaves, even a bay leaf.

 

[SquarePeg]

Thanks to you both! I'm feeling somewhat better about it.

@snowbear : that's pretty sweet for 10 minutes of work! I like the cross hatching here. Your set of inks was perfect here!

It's funny but neither of the ref photos I looked at even showed any leaves. Just flower clusters. It seems a bit bare-branched without them but since I don't know their shape, I just let it go.

My trees are Kwanzan Cherry Blossoms. The leaves develop after the flowers fall off. No one needs a photo of that

 

[SquarePeg]

Two failed watercolor paintings today. . I do fine following a tutorial or copying someone else’s painting for practice but I just can’t get the look I want when it’s my own concept. It comes out too stiff or too childish looking.

After the frustration with the wc, I went back to the inks for a quick flower painting. Poppies. Used a posca paint pen for the centers. Annoyingly I messed up the center top left trying to remove a Harlie hair from the paint. Smudged the whole thing. . Added the white to try and fix it. I didn’t have the heart to start over again. Hard to get a good pic of the glossy tiles without glare from the lights and windows.

 

[terri]

I think you're being overly harsh here - the flowers, palette - all look pretty sweet here! I especially like the upper left flower. Very nice sweeping lines.

Annoyingly I messed up the center top left trying to remove a Harlie hair from the paint.

Funny, it's cat hair in my house. And I have 2 of them!