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LEARN TO PAINT
Here's a free painting demonstration to get you started
painting in pastels.
This demonstration was executed en plein air
(paintings done outdoors!), at a workshop in Rye, New Hampshire.
I usually work outdoors because I feel that I can best express mood,
temperature, atmosphere and colors directly from nature. In some of these
shots you can even see part of the landscape beyond the easel.
Here are the steps I used to demonstrate rocks and ocean
at a recent plein air workshop:
Click on each thumbnail to see a larger image.
Initially, I spread a light coat of bright pink
pastel over the sanded paper and brushed over it with some rubbing alcohol.
Next, I taped where my sky would end and laid in the sky colors with a
light cadmium yellow deep and light ultramarine blue. Then I used a stick
charcoal to sketch in the rocks I wanted in my picture. It wasn't necessary
to draw all of the rocks and ledges, because I was trying to capture the
feeling of the place, not an exact copy of the view. As I added the variety
of layers to my pastel I left some of the bright prink under painting
showing. This gives my final work a bright warm appearance.
In the next step involved reversing the tape to keep a
straight edge on the horizon of the ocean and adding some mid-toned
ultramarine to the water.
After lifting the tape, I added lighter values of
ultramarine and then some light yellows and cobalt to give more variety of
color to the water. Painting the water in one color or value will make it
look flat.
Next, I added the deepest blue I had (I know it looks
black, but it's really blue!) to the shadowed areas of the rocks.
 The
rocks were painted from dark to light using burnt umber, burnt sienna,
ultramarine, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow deep and cadmium yellow light.
When I really wanted to lighten an area, I used Rembrandt Cadmium yellow
light (# 512,5). This is a soft yellowish white that really lightens and
blends.
 The
final touches were added with mixed greens and yellows for the sea grasses.
I also added a few strokes of lighter ultramarine blue over some of the
grasses to achieve cool lights.
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