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This one took longer than it should have, due to interruptions in getting back to it.
12×16″ Pastelmat. Sketched in graphite and sprayed over with Krylon. The first layer in the sky is Cray Pas black mixed with my student-grade Pentel black. Blended well, then Mungyos and Senns for the red clouds. Bottom layer on the top is Mungyo black and lilac; underneath the horizon line, it’s brown & prussian blue.
I wanted a very dark, dark painting. I’ve never painted a horse, though I grew up riding, so I thought I’d give it a try like this, where it was supposed to be dusk. It was fun, but really hard to photograph – I had to brighten it in Gimp to a nearly unnatural level just to show it here; in reality, it’s hard to see any details without a good light over it!
Here’s the only WIP photo I took (I forgot). But it does show the buildup of the blue and brown over the graphite sketch:
A couple of closeups, also lightened considerably:
It was fun! But hard to photograph. I can see every finger smudge and piece of lint I must remove.
All comments welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!Terri
Film photographer with special love for alternative photographic processes - especially ones that get my hands dirty!
Tali, Christel, Rich – thank you all for commenting!
A suggestion – take a grey version of your painting and see where your focal point is.
Hi Christel, so you mean look at it in grayscale in gimp?
The subject of the painting is the horse and rider. By focal point, are you referring to following the leading line(s) created here?
Terri
Film photographer with special love for alternative photographic processes - especially ones that get my hands dirty!
Your painting in grey version and how I try to increase the difference in value, making the horse more noticeable going onto a road that is well lit by the moon and stars
Christel
Oh, okay, I understand what you’re referring to now.
Yes, this painting in its final form has very limited tonal range. It was deliberate on my part.
Here is an earlier version that sat for a few days before I returned to it to finish it up:
You may prefer this version, with its lighter tonal value for the horse and rider. They really pop against the darker background. It was my intention, however, to make this a very dark painting, in the same mode of Tonalism in general. (This painting likely wouldn’t qualify as pure Tonalism because of the palette, but as far as trying to keep the middle values the main ones throughout, plus going for atmosphere, shadow, etc., it works somewhat.)
Anyway, when I returned to the painting to finish it, I darkened the horse and rider to have them deliberately fade into the shadows a bit more.
Again, I wasn’t even going for a true Tonalism painting, just playing with the idea of a darker, shadowy palette where the viewer has to squint to see the details. It’s what makes using a real Tonalist painting as a ref image, which I’ve done in the past, really difficult!
Terri
Film photographer with special love for alternative photographic processes - especially ones that get my hands dirty!
Hi Terri!
Oh, painting dark scenes is hard as everyone says! You did great, it does have the dark dusk feel… love the geometry of the lines – they make the eye wander around the painting… I can imagine it was hard to photograph!
Like Christel, I also prefer the version with the light horse and the rider, but it’s a cool painting anyway!
:thumbsup:I love oil pastels and have created a blog about this medium. While the blog posts are in Russian, still I invite you to get inspired with various artists' beautiful OP paintings in my blog's gallery: https://oilpastelist.wordpress.com/gallery
Thanks for the kind words, Hopskidee and Mira!
Mira, I was tempted to leave that version alone, which is why I had taken the photo. Glad I did so I could show it as this lighter representation of the horse and rider.
But in the end, my self-challenge was to paint something dark and shadowy, and that horse just stood out like a sore thumb to me. I painted it light just to help myself get the details in since I paint so few animals, but couldn’t stand it at the end.
I’m very happy with how it turned out. I’m looking across the room at it right now, and it sure is dark. Success!Terri
Film photographer with special love for alternative photographic processes - especially ones that get my hands dirty!
Oh yeah, I can imagine that. A very dark painting gotta be dark!
I wish we could see the real values of the finished painting…I love oil pastels and have created a blog about this medium. While the blog posts are in Russian, still I invite you to get inspired with various artists' beautiful OP paintings in my blog's gallery: https://oilpastelist.wordpress.com/gallery
I wish we could see the real values of the finished painting…
Yes, me too! The unnatural way I lightened it in gimp to show the details doesn’t do it justice. It’s dark, but not in a bad way. I call it “handsome.”
We’re all familiar with throwing a lot of light on our some of our paintings to get a decent photo, and have the colors go wonky. Most of the time, it’s not an issue.
Terri
Film photographer with special love for alternative photographic processes - especially ones that get my hands dirty!
I approve of dark
It’s a very atmospheric painting indeed, dream like and strange. Well done!http://www.shyeomans.co.uk
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Nothing left but smoke and cellar, and a woman with a black umbrella...
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