One of the questions I’m often asked by beginning artists is, “How do I paint the background?” This says to me that the background is being considered only after the main subject has been rendered, namely, it’s an afterthought! In fact, the background is as important to the painting as the subject itself. Really. The
I’m deep into painting for the 31-pastels-in-31-days Challenge. My first painting was a small vase filled with ageing flowers. I painted it. I liked the subject and the tall format and wondered what it would be like to explore a single subject in more paintings. Suddenly I was flooded with other ideas for painting this
If you’ve followed me for some time, you know how I encourage (demand?!) the creation and use of thumbnail sketches. These small notations of composition and value are the roadmap I use while working. And they’re especially valuable for keeping you on track in the changing light when working en plein air. You may ask,
I was asked a couple weeks ago by a subscriber what colour schemes I use for soft pastel paintings. My response was that I didn’t use colour schemes. Instead, I look closely at my subject and plan my colours more in terms of what I’m seeing. From that observation, using a limited palette I build
I just finished teaching a five-day plein air workshop at MISSA (Metchosin International Summer School of Arts). I had amazing students who painted diligently every day. One of their challenges was painting summer greens! Snuggled into a corner of the Pacific Northwest, the location of this art retreat is top heavy with trees both evergreen
Finally the temperatures are warming up! Add that to the fact that I’m heading to the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts (MISSA) to teach a plein painting workshop next week, and you have me outside painting. Yesterday, even though I’d planned to paint by the sea, it was sooooo windy that I thought,
When you receive this, I will have finished participating in the ICAN Pastel Conference Paint-Around! As I write this, however, the event is still in the future. In preparation, I needed to decide on an image and to help with this decision, I turned to creating thumbnails of a number of photos. Two things I needed
Recently I was asked about cropping – why do it, how to do it, when to do it. Indeed, the question was: Is there a ‘formula’ for cropping? I’ve written a previous post on using a viewfinder to help you crop your reference photo to get the best view to paint. (A reminder – try
Visiting my Mum and Dad last weekend, I was struck by the light and colour of summer flowers in a vase on the living room table. The thing that really got my attention though was the way the red coaster was visible beside the vase but disappeared behind it even though the vase was transparent.
If all you have is a limited palette, a lack of colour choices can stop you from painting some subjects. I’m here to persuade you to take up the creativity challenge with the pastels you have available – you may be surprised! Take today’s demo – a box of tissues as its subject. It’s a
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