Mixed Media, PanPastels and Zinnias

 There is a farmer not too far from my house growing zinnias!  You can pick your own at $4 for a dozen!  So beautiful, so I just had to pick a couple of dozen.  I brought them back to my studio to study and make drawings.

I just finished participating in PASTEL LIVE so I decided to try my hand at my pastels again.  Debora Stewart gave an interesting demo using acrylic paint, charcoal and pastels painting flowers in an abstract way.  So, with my zinnias as inspiration, I tried my hand at it.  What fun!!  Watch my progress below. 

So pretty!

   

Blind Contour drawings of the flowers.

 

Using Golden Fluid Acrylics, I created some washes on matboard.

Working from my drawings, I used charcoal and created a composition.  Then I brushed a coat of clear gesso on top of everything.  This will darken the charcoal and set the ground for the pastels.

Making drawings from the flowers

  

I thought I would try a new twist with Debora's technique.  I love gelli plate printing and using stencils as well as PanPastels.  So I thought why not combine the two.  I added a layer of thin blue PanPastel to the background around the flowers.  Then using one of Elizabeth St. Hilaire's wonderful stencils, I pounced pastel into the background before I started working the flowers.

Adding blues to the background

Pouncing the PanPastel through the stencil

Makes an interesting effect in the background.

After working the flowers. 
Now deciding if I am finished with it.

Close up.

What do you think?  Am I finished?  Did I create a new technique?

Let me know what you think via my website:

RhettsStudio.com

Red-Eared Slider Turtles

I stopped at Casa de Fruta on my way to Monterey (CA) a few weeks ago and decided to check out the pond and take photos of the ducks.  Low and behold there were NO ducks anywhere!  But the rocks along the edges of the pond were filled with turtles basking in the sun on the rocks!  Boy did I have fun taking their pictures!  Naturally, I just had to try my hand at creating some art too.  So I got out my Pan Pastels and started in.  I discovered they were actually pretty difficult to capture their many details and especially the stripes!  But here they are all framed up and in the Tracy Grand Theatre Artists Co-op gallery.  Watch the video at the bottom of this blog!

PASTEL: Calla Lilies in Pacific Grove

Calla Lilies in Pacific Grove  pastels  22" x 26

Calla Lilies on the Coast  8" x 10"  oil 

My friend and I decided to paint along the coast in Pacific Grove, CA in Monterey County.  It was such a beautiful day and we were delighted to find a big stand of calla lilies which someone had planted near the water.  We set up our easels and painted. 

< Here is my plein air painting / study from that day.  The calla lilies were thick and in full bloom as was the purple Pride of Maderia.  The sea was brilliant blue and there were large black cormants sunning themselves on the rocks.

It was a lovely day and I never forgot those pretty white calla lilies on the coast.

So when a pastel show was announced at our Carnegie Arts Center, I thought I might try working from my plein air study and create a new painting from that day.  The finished painting is above and below you can see a few shots I took in progress as I worked on this pastel painting.

Study for the final painting

 

< Here is a small study I worked up to get ready for the larger pastel painting.   Now for sale on Daily Paintworks.  

 9" x 10"   Callas and Butterflies in Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove is famous for its Monarch Butterflies so I added butterfly stamps around the border and colored them with the Pan Pastels.  

I have been wanting to try out my new Pan Pastels so here was my chance!  I bought a large sheet of Uart sanded pastel paper and cut it to fit a frame I already
 had.  

My idea was to have a painting within a painting.  Like you might look out a window to the scene.  I wanted to try some mixed media techniques as well  using stamps and a Versa stamp pad with the pan pastels.  

I wanted the area around the central square to be soft and dreamy, mystical and magical surrounding the more in-focus center.  So I began by taping around the central square to form a frame.

<  This photo shows the beginning stages of working the outer frame with the soft pan pastels and the sofft sponges.  Sofft sponges are specially designed to use with the pan pastels.  They are in the shape of standard artist's paint brushes so are so nice to work with. 

< Here I am starting to work the central section.  I wanted some of the leaves and lilies to overlap into the border for added interest, so I needed to plan it out a bit.

Close up.  Working with large sofft sponges

Let me know how you like my pastel painting and wish me luck getting into the pastel show!

My painting was accepted to this National Juried Competition along with a 2nd pastel painting.

On display at the 
THE FINE ART OF PASTELS
March 28 - May 26, 2019
Carnegie Arts Center
250 N. Broadway, Turlock, CA  95380

Also accepted is my pastel
"Carmel Mission Sanctuary"
Which won an award in another
show (shown in photo)

Baby Mourning Doves Mixed Media

Baby Mourning Doves

Here is my second attempt at doing an ink and pan pastel drawing / painting.  Since it uses acrylic inks painted with a brush and then pan pastels on top.... would you call it a painting or a drawing?  Hummm.

Well, I guess I will just called it a Mixed Media piece.  My reference photo is below.  These mourning doves find our carport perfect for their nests.  This is the 2nd brood this year!  Momma is very watchful of her babies.

My photo reference from my own photo. 

Here is my oil painting from the mixed media project below. 

Drawing a Mourning Dove using acrylic inks and pan pastels

A MIXED MEDIA PROJECT

This has been an interesting project for me.  I am trying some new techniques and using some new materials I have never used before.  I am still struggling learning to accurately draw birds.  They are more difficult than one would believe. I bought an online class on Craftsy on drawing birds.  The teacher is a very fine bird illustrator and he had us using acrylic inks in many layers.  This creates a beautiful, stained glass-like affect. Wonderful! We have Mourning Doves nesting in our carport every year.  Last year there were 5 broods of nestlings!  They are so cute to watch as their parents care for them.  Mourning Doves are so sweet.  I just love them and thought I would  try my hand at this bird. 

Before we began we made a value drawing and graphed it out to transfer to our final paper.  I learned that I really did not observe the bird very well.  John Muir Laws says he often makes the head too big and yep, so did I.  Amazing how you learn from your mistakes.  I also wanted to slim down the bird a little as I thought she was too fat and puffy.  This was probably another mistake.  I should have followed the photo more closely.

   

Photo by Pandeeswaran Bhoopathy
Thank you to Pandeeswaran for letting me use your photograph.  He is an amazing photographer!

Here is my value pencil drawing from my source.

I made a photo copy of my drawing and then graphed it out to transfer to my mixed media paper. 

This is the beginning stages of inking my drawing.  I used very thin, pale ink.  

The final stages of inking. 

I decided to add a branch under my bird, but the source photo did not show me the feet.
This made it very difficult.  I am not very good at drawing feet without a source.
So I searched and searched for a photo that might show me a Mourning Dove in this position
where I could see the feet.  But I did not have much luck,
but I finally figured out what to do which you can see in the final photo. 

I was not really very happy with my results.  I felt the bird looked like a pine cone
(a quote from John Muir Laws) because I had drawn every feather!
 A big no no.  So what could I do?  Well I decided to go over my drawing with pan pastels.
They are amazing pastels.  I have worked with stick pastels for years,
but these new pastels are amazing.  They are very transparent and can be put
over the inks making a softer look.  
Doves have a softness to the feathers and the pan pastels really made the dove
look nicer and smoother.  I loved it!

I wanted to add a soft background, so I decided to try my hand at using the pan pastels.
Here is my effort as I was progressing with this.
The pan pastels are so soft and create a fuzzy, soft background.

So here is my mostly finished project.  For a first project using this technique, I am satisfied, but feel I have much more to learn.  But that is a journey I am willing to work toward improving.  And I had fun doing it!

RESOURCES: 

www.johnmuirlaws.com/

    John is an excellent teacher and has some great bird (and animal) drawing lessons on line. Check his website out.

www.craftsy.com

    Drawing Birds in Brush & Ink with George Boorujy

    George is a very fine bird illustrator and this is an excellent class.