The other day, I tried a new drawing technique I found in Moira Huntly's book, and I posted the result as my daily drawing number 236. I liked the result, but after wiping out the charcoal to reveal the watercolor beneath, I felt the remaining black was too stark and even sinister. For today's daily drawing, I took "Tree Patterns" and brightened the yellow coming from behind using soft pastel and I softened the hard edges of the black using some warm sienna pastel along a few of the edges, and a little cool pastel in the areas most removed from the bright morning light. I think the overall effect is much more successful, and a good way to build on the wipe away technique.
What do you think?
This is my two hundred thirty-eighth daily drawing. Thanks for joining me on the journey.
"Early Light"
is a recent and early exploration with soft pastel. I wasn't sure where to begin,
but knew I wanted a dark ground. I squeezed some burnt sienna, viridian
and ultramarine gouache onto the board, and spread them out which
provided a very dark ground with some cool and warm components. Turns
out the gouache dries with a nice matte finish with tooth! Great for
the application of the pastels. My plan was to build up the lights,
leaving the ground in places. You can see a few transitional images to
the left. I'm pleased with the result and encouraged to keep
exploring. One of the challenges for me was that when I wanted a
neutral violet of value 4 with hints of ochre in it, which I could make
quickly with my oils... I had to hunt and open another box, and lay
color next to other color to approximate the color I was looking for.
It's a puzzle, an exciting puzzle. Looking forward to more exploration.
Every couple of
years, North River Arts Society holds a fundraiser, Outside the Box
(OTB). The public is invited to create art, this year on a 5 x 10 inch
board. Nothing is signed, and each participant is invited to make art
that is different from their norm. The resulting hundreds of pieces of
art are displayed for a month as silent auction. Visitors bid on the
art they love, without knowing who created it. "Early Light" was my entry for this year's OTB.
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| "Last Light" start |
I am experimenting with soft pastels. For "Last Light", I created a ground on canvas with gouache straight from the tube using a combination of ultramarine, burnt sienna and viridian. The ground formed is matte, and toothy, which I like. I built up the lights, leaving some of the ground showing in the darkest darks. Interesting effect, and completely counter-intuitive for me thinking about how to lay color next to other color, rather than using my limited palette of oils or watercolors to make the color I am looking for.
Thanks for looking.. we'll see what happens next.
