Home › Forums › Explore Media › Pastels › Soft Pastel Studio and Gallery › new to pastels, new painting
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February 5, 2018 at 1:16 pm #450823
Hi Everyone, I started pastels a couple months ago, and this is about my third attempt. I attached this one only because it is the best picture. I’m having a little difficulty photographing my work, but I’ll get the hang of it. Couple things about my work, I’m in my sixties and not concerned about a career in art or marketing my work, or becoming looser or more painterly, or anything like that. I love landscapes, and am inspired by the simple, beautiful moments in every day observation. I’m not interested in weather phenomena, such as rainbows or thunderstorms, just the simple, elegant, quiet moment in time. All my paintings are from the Big Sky country of Montana. I would love constructive criticism about anything you might observe, since I’m brand new to this stuff. Please let me know what you honestly think. Thanks!
February 5, 2018 at 1:54 pm #560297Richard, welcome to the pastel forum. First tip: photograph before you put it behind glass. I take my matted work our on the patio, where it is shaded, but bright. I lean over my painting, squaring up the image in the view finder. Then click. You can go into your photo editing program and crop.
Now onto pastels! You have transitioned quite nicely to pastels. It’s pretty much layering your colors, and you have done that. You can blend with a finger, or drawing another stick over what you have painted. The only suggestion I could possibly offer is to soften the edges of parts of the farthest hills. A word of caution. Please consider any suggests carefully before attempting to change your painting. Take what others have suggested and decide which ones make sense for you. Again, welcome!!![FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Karen, IAPS/MC, PSA WC Moderator-Pastels
web site , Getting started in soft pastels., What you need to know, Critique Guide LinesFebruary 5, 2018 at 2:53 pm #560309Thanks for the suggestion, water girl. So you lay your painting down flat, and then photograph? I have and use Photoshop, so cropping and color correcting is easy. I just thought it would be much easier than it was to photograph them in the frames. I will still work on that, but you are right, taking them before framing is key. I’ll do that from now on. Thanks also for the suggestion of blending or “fuzzing” the edges on the background. I’ll try that. Happy painting!
February 5, 2018 at 4:06 pm #560298If, by chance, your painting is larger than 16 X 20, you may just have to stand on a stool and then shoot down. I’m short, and elevation is sometimes required.
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Karen, IAPS/MC, PSA WC Moderator-Pastels
web site , Getting started in soft pastels., What you need to know, Critique Guide LinesFebruary 5, 2018 at 5:22 pm #560310Thanks for the suggestion, water girl. So you lay your painting down flat, and then photograph? I have and use Photoshop, so cropping and color correcting is easy. I just thought it would be much easier than it was to photograph them in the frames. I will still work on that, but you are right, taking them before framing is key. I’ll do that from now on. Thanks also for the suggestion of blending or “fuzzing” the edges on the background. I’ll try that. Happy painting!
February 6, 2018 at 5:29 am #560291It is a very promising painting. I am sure you will turn out to be a great painter of landscapes.
Charles
February 6, 2018 at 8:22 am #560293Very nicely done and welcome to the forum Richard! Since you are obviously an experienced painter I think you could consider pushing your sense of distance a little more – maybe on your next piece. I try to make sure I never use the same exact color in the foreground as I do in the mid-ground and background, even if they look the same in my reference or even in real life. Our cameras just don’t capture those very subtle changes. By gradually cooling colors and lightening values we can usually reinforce the feeling of depth and distance. I admire the way you suggested the distant trees; we don’t need any details to know what they are. I look forward to seeing more of your work and I too appreciate the beauty in simple or overlooked scenes.
February 6, 2018 at 9:24 am #560308Very nicely done.
You might have a highlighted area somewhere in the painting. Maybe the sky? Or maybe it already is the highlight and we do not see it because of limitations of photography.
At any rate you have gotten the feeling of depth. Very important in landscape.
Keep up the good work.February 6, 2018 at 10:51 am #560311Thanks for all the suggestions and support, everyone. Seems like the suggestion to enhance depth by making the background less clear and using different colors is a good one, and one I overlooked. I was born and raised in Seattle, where the atmosphere is so wet and saturated I got used to everything in the distance being fuzzy, if you could even see it at all. I moved to Montana and lived there for 13 years, and I have some issues I’m working out with these landscapes. I absolutely loved the colors and the way the atmosphere was so clear and crisp, sometimes the mountains in the distance seemed so close I could reach out and touch them. I miss the beauty and being able to clearly see the distant features, I think I over compensate in my paintings! As I suspected, I have some work to do. That’s what I love about this, constantly trying to improve and get better. It’s great to have comments from people I trust, to help me with that. Again, thanks to everyone and keep them coming!
February 6, 2018 at 12:31 pm #560312Thanks again for all the input. Here is another one, I apologize for the photo quality, I’m still working on that. There may still be some depth issues here with this one, but at least the background are cooler colors. Let me know what all of you think….
February 6, 2018 at 1:21 pm #560299Now, that looks like a place I’d like to visit. I can almost hear the rushing water in that river. You have used that river as a vehicle to guide us up river and around the bend.
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Karen, IAPS/MC, PSA WC Moderator-Pastels
web site , Getting started in soft pastels., What you need to know, Critique Guide LinesFebruary 7, 2018 at 7:32 am #560294February 7, 2018 at 11:17 am #560313Thanks everyone for the kind words. I just want to gush a little about this wonderful medium. As I said in an earlier post, I’m new to the soft pastel arena, and I am just loving it. I enjoy the immediacy, being able to get things down quickly without mixing paints, and to fill the paper with layers of color and work them down and over each other, it is so much fun! I’ve always enjoyed painting and drawing, but have found both mediums have limitations in their own way, but pastels have opened up a whole new world for me. I confess I have become a little obsessed with them, all the wonderful colors and textures available. I started making my own sticks about a month ago, and I find almost as much enjoyment doing that as with painting. Most of my work is done with my own pastels. I love the sanded papers, the textures and the feeling of pressing and dragging colors out and onto the surface. I even love the sound it makes. What a joy! My many, many thanks to all who have posted Utube videos, especially Bethany Fields and Karen Margulis, and to Marla Baggetta for getting me inspired to start. Also to everyone here who has posted photos and their thoughts and ideas and inspiration. It has brought this old guy a lot of fun these past few months!
February 7, 2018 at 1:19 pm #560300Gush away! You’ve joined the dusty club.
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Karen, IAPS/MC, PSA WC Moderator-Pastels
web site , Getting started in soft pastels., What you need to know, Critique Guide LinesFebruary 7, 2018 at 5:25 pm #560314Yeah, I got the bug BAD. I even like the dust!
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