Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The long road home


Morning Creek, pastel, 10 x 8 inches

The Backstory: It was nearly time to leave for my Friday painting group and I wasn't ready to go. I quickly found a reference photo on my computer, opened it in Photoshop, slid the color bar way over to warm and hit print. I grabbed it and a piece of Uart and headed out knowing this was not going to be my favorite way of painting. I like to start with an oil under-painting of a complementary color or a dark value. I do not like to start with a blank piece of light value paper.

Reference photo for Morning Creek
This is my easel, Uart and b/w ref photo. I sketched the scene with a red pastel pencil.
This is the long road home part. It seemed to take forever to get to the place where I would have started if I had applied an oil-wash under-painting before adding any pastel. The scene wasn't inviting when I stuck to the cooler colors in the reference photo, it needed lots of nuanced color to add warmth and depth. But, adding warmth changed it from a spring scene to summer or autumn. Here's a very quick video of me beginning to add some warmth. Link to YouTube Morning Creek Nuance.

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