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  • #984445
    Dyin
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        Oil Pastel Classroom August 2004
        Tree basics

        This month we’re exploring a subject that I myself have struggled with. It’s easy to hear the principles for creating landscape trees, but it has been a bit difficult to apply them with oil pastel. I have done countless practice pieces this last month trying to come up with a basic guideline to follow, which we then can take and expand on for different uses.

        I’ve done two demos, the first I didn’t finish because I wanted to show the effect different approaches have. Our own guide Kyle graciously also did an example of this same one in her own unique style to show us a different approach. I also did a quick 10 minute piece to show the exact way I found to lay down colors for trees. It’s rough but it’s effective.

        Here are some good links to give you an idea of basic tree anatomy and techniques.

        http://www.currys.com/knowledge/anatomy.asp (link for tree anatomy helpfully provided by our own Stonewhiteclown…thanks Alex!

        https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=133891 (how to make a path of light wc thread by Ruth)

        https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209022 (tchris52 technique for tree painting..soft pastel)

        Some other things to remember when doing trees.

        Don’t try to get all the details…as you can see from my demo it’s too easy to get lost in it all and the oil pastels start to blend too much.

        Contrast is extremely important

        Remember to leave sky holes

        Remember that leaves grow from the ends of the branches and some fall forward and others behind.

        Pay attention to the trunk…it narrows as it goes higher and light will hit one side of it

        As an artist you have the artistic license to create a more pleasing shape

        Blues, violet and blue greens are good for showing the under growth and for trees in the distance

        Here’s demo #1, a willow, which is a bit advanced for learning tree basics, but taught me a whole lot. Since I didn’t feel it was a success I wasn’t going to use it, but I think it may help you to avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into.

        I found using a dark paper was much easier than white. I first laid down the obvious shadow areas, but I was to later find out that I went a touch too light…the green was supposed to denote the darker areas. I should have laid a deeper blue

        I then laid in the basic shape of the trunk and the grass as a guideline

        then I started to lay in a background so I could judge the tones…I really went about this all backwards. But to be honest I didn’t know I was even going to do a background…remember, I’m not really a landscape artist…I should have done a quick study to figure out my composition and contrasts first.

        ok…here’s where I started to see what I’d done wrong. I hadn’t gone dark enough for the shadows. The oil pastels were slipping over each other and losing definition. I was getting what we call mud. I knew the tree should have various colors but I just couldn’t make the Ops do what I wanted. I almost stopped here.

        I was getting a little closer by this stage..you can see I went a lot darker but still was extremely unhappy with the undefined strokes in a lot of the areas. My trouble was that I was trying to use a soft pastel approach and it doesn’t work with the oilies.

        I did stop here…you can see that I could have went several ways with this…but for the most part I was fighting my support. A good toothed paper would have allowed me more control on strokes. I had learned at this point that you need the darks to bring out the lights and that planning ahead would have made a lot of difference. I did scumble some light blue and greens over the dark area to the right and it was effective as a dark mass. I never did get to highlight the trunk.

        Here is Kat’s version of this ref…when I tried this loose expressive approach all I got was a hairy ball that looked like a chia pet! Kat really caught the sunlit effects and wind movement characteristic of willow trees.

        Thanks Kat…great expression and light here!

        I learned a lot with my willow study and what follows was a much more successful 10 minute study that I did standing at a window looking out (as it was too hot for a plein aire approach.)

        This is the method I discovered for successfully using oil pastels for trees.

        Find the darkest areas and block them in…you can scribble them or lay them in with the side of the pastel…use a cool dark color.

        now lay in the brightest areas where the sun hits strongest.

        I next laid a little orange just below the light areas. Then I took a bright green and went over the light area and some of the orange…allowing a couple really light spots to remain. I took a dark green and went over the blue, allowing some of the blue to show. It’s a very simplified tree, but it’s a base technique to work with. Different greens, lights and blues will give different colors.

        Here you can see another way I could have done the willow or a big evergreen.
        1. dark green in the general shape of the leafed branch
        2. dark blue for the shaded area
        3. orange overlapping the two
        4. a very pale light green for base of sunlight area
        5. bright green very lightly passed over the whole thing to tie it together…

        Ok…now I am really hoping some of the more experienced landscapers will come in and show us even better and more effective ways of approaching this. But I would like to see us try this approach and then adapt it to your own style. You can use trees in nature or try using the image library references you can find here…

        https://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showgallery.php?si=tree&x=11&y=9

        Please share your results on this thread telling us what you may have learned that will help us all to be more knowledgeable in our studies. Thanks very much for the wonderful participation in all the previous classes…I’m really looking forward to seeing your results!

        Sue/Dyin

        Artist webpage
        See my virtual gallery!

        Charter Member of Silver Chord Art Guild

        #1035932
        ColorMyWorld
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            Thanks for the lesson Sue.

            I would not have thought of putting down the darkest and lightest and working toward the middles. I usually work dark to light. I’ll have to try this.

            One point to add. If you have a lot of trees, work farthest away first. The idea of what is in front of what comes across better that way.

            Ann Tucker
            Website & blog

            #1035801
            Dyin
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                Thanks for the tip, Ann! I do know that further trees will have less details, but it makes sense to work your way forward. :)

                Artist webpage
                See my virtual gallery!

                Charter Member of Silver Chord Art Guild

                #1035916
                Biggles7268
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                    Ooooooooooooh thank you for doing this one.

                    /me is excited

                    #1035877
                    Pat Isaac
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                        :D This is going to be such fun. Thank you so much for doing this and a “willow tree??” Wow, great job. I’m not sure I would attempt this. It is so good to see how everyone approaches this subject. Kat, I like your wispiness. I have already picked out a few trees from the library. I also am posting the only tree I ever did in OPs and I did it the way you suggested dark masses and then light. I did put in most of the trunk first so I knew where to put the masses.lol

                        Pat

                        #1035802
                        Dyin
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                            Geez, Pat…you could have done this class…that’s a great tree!!! Rocks are good too :D How large is this and do you remember what support you used? I like that you allowed it to go out of the picture plane…i need to plan better, my willow was going to fit in nicely but it grew a little and ended up crowded looking. You have nice clean separation between all the tones and that’s what had frustrated me so much, glad to know what I finally figured out is the way it’s done by someone else :D Thanks so much for joining in!

                            Artist webpage
                            See my virtual gallery!

                            Charter Member of Silver Chord Art Guild

                            #1035878
                            Pat Isaac
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                                Thanks, Sue. I used Sennelier La Carte paper lt. blue and it is 22″x 28″. The art center that I belong to had a paint in the garden event in conjunction with a garden tour of local estates. We were given the estate to paint on and, of course, I hate to paint outside and I don’t do landscapes. I went to the house several days before the event to see what was there and I loved this tree. I took a ton of pictures and started it in my studio. Fortunately, the day dawned very drizzly and raw so I could stay in my studio.lol :D

                                Pat

                                #1035803
                                Dyin
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                                    lol….sounds like my kind of plein aire :p Yeah, think size makes things easier…what’s your favorite surface to work on…do you have an underpainting with this one?

                                    Artist webpage
                                    See my virtual gallery!

                                    Charter Member of Silver Chord Art Guild

                                    #1035879
                                    Pat Isaac
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                                        My favorite surface is Wallis. I used it for the first time last year and I really like the way the pastel goes on the paper, plus Wallis takes a lot of abuse. I also like Colorfix and Sennelier La Carte. I just started trying colorfix ground (which comes in jars) on Sennelier #D360 paper. I don’t use underpainting as I usually have toned paper. The only underpainting that I’ve done is to tone the paper. I really don’t like to work against white. :)

                                        Pat

                                        #1035866
                                        greenpearl
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                                            Thanks for the demo, Sue. Trees are (slightly) less scary now, and I might try one some day. A very simple one – not like Pat’s, which is awesome. :clap:

                                            Monica
                                            #1035804
                                            Dyin
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                                                Thanks for the demo, Sue. Trees are (slightly) less scary now, and I might try one some day. A very simple one – not like Pat’s, which is awesome. :clap:

                                                whaddayamean, someday??? That’s what this study group is for! Just try the simple one…I did! It’s just to get a feel for how to put the OPs on the paper and make a tree, not to create some great masterpiece. It’s really great that we get excellent artists like Pat to join in, gives us something to attain to :D and we can see that it works with some practice. Can’t learn unless we try and as I’ve learned myself, no success without failure to learn from. (Am I persuasive enough? :p )

                                                Artist webpage
                                                See my virtual gallery!

                                                Charter Member of Silver Chord Art Guild

                                                #1035880
                                                Pat Isaac
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                                                    :o :o :o blush, blush. Thanks, but I’m here to echo Sue’s admonition. whaddaya mean wait??? Do it now and very soon you’ll be making great trees…This is a place to learn and practise. Maybe I’ll even do more landscapes. :rolleyes: lol

                                                    Pat

                                                    #1035917
                                                    Biggles7268
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                                                        Just got my new set of Senneliers today and am playing with them, I don’t have a real camera to take any pics with but here is a low rez webcam snapshot lol.

                                                        still playing with it, trying to get a feel for these OP’s which so far are MUCH better than the ones I’ve been using.

                                                        lol those came out blurrier than I had hoped.

                                                        #1035795

                                                        :D This is going to be such fun. Thank you so much for doing this and a “willow tree??” Wow, great job. I’m not sure I would attempt this. It is so good to see how everyone approaches this subject. Kat, I like your wispiness. I have already picked out a few trees from the library. I also am posting the only tree I ever did in OPs and I did it the way you suggested dark masses and then light. I did put in most of the trunk first so I knew where to put the masses.lol

                                                        Pat

                                                        Pat, this is just stunning – it looks so real and soooo well done. Bravo!

                                                        #1035805
                                                        Dyin
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                                                            wooohooo Biggles!!! New toys AND a tree for us all in one day!!! I’m excited and didn’t even get any :p And this is a pretty good tree too…especially like the lacy effect. A couple things to think about…think about where the trunk might show instead of sky holes in the center area of the branches, you can just dot the color you’re using for the trunk wherever you think it might be. Another is to start thinking about sunlight hitting one side or another as contrast makes the best paintings. A little light would show on some of the trunk too. But I think you did a GREAT job on this little guy! I love the crookedness of the trunk too! :clap:

                                                            Artist webpage
                                                            See my virtual gallery!

                                                            Charter Member of Silver Chord Art Guild

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