Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[snowbear]

Looking forward to it, hon.

 

[snowbear]

Fun sketch!! I like it - you're off to a good start.

Dank je. I have another idea if I can get it on paper.

 

[snowbear]

I decided I didn't like the original sketch, so ...
Hard pastels and a little fountain pen ink.


cmw3_i12s_1205 by Charlie Wrenn, on Flickr

 

[terri]

I actually liked what you had started - but this works just as well for Communication! I like it!

I'm at a rough sketch of an old telephone circa late 1940s-early 1950s, kind of matching our bungalow. Trying to decide if I should attack the sketch with oil pastels, colored pencils or try to paint it in acrylics. I'm not comfortable painting with a brush so that's likely out.

Seeing your work here reminds me that hard pastels might work, I need to look for my set of Prismacolors.

 

[snowbear]

I actually liked what you had started - but this works just as well for Communication! I like it!

I'm at a rough sketch of an old telephone circa late 1940s-early 1950s, kind of matching our bungalow. Trying to decide if I should attack the sketch with oil pastels, colored pencils or try to paint it in acrylics. I'm not comfortable painting with a brush so that's likely out.

Seeing your work here reminds me that hard pastels might work, I need to look for my set of Prismacolors.

I’ll finish the other one, eventually.

Looking forward to yours. I have a small box of 18 I probably got from Michaels

 

[limr]

So I broke out the art supplies. Decided that I am an absolute beginner and need to forget that I had previous false starts. I started to do some very simple tutorials on YouTube. I did the same tutorial/painting four times.

Here are the four attempts from yesterday (in chronological order, first one on the left). They look better from far away They all have some things that I think went well and other things that didn't. After watching a few more tutorials, I understand some of the mistakes from yesterday, so I'm doing some more practice today. I'm doing the same painting a few more times, but am also trying a different image from a reference photo - also super simple (sky, silhouetted landscape) but one that forces me to try to think of how to employ the techniques instead of strictly following exact instructions.

The last one doesn't have a border because I tried a technique that involves wetting both sides of the paper and not taping it. It's flatter than the others, and it buys a little more time to do washes, but I do kinda miss the border. so I might try some combo of wetting one side, then taping it before wetting the other side so the tape will stick.

 

[snowbear]

Looking good, Leo. Get some of the brown paper tape that needs wetting to stick.

 

[terri]

Good job, Leo! I like the palette on these. I can hardly think of working without a border of some kind, but it's nice that it lays flatter that way. I'm happy you've broken out the art supplies and playing around again!

@snowbear , I'm pretty lame, not submitting anything on my own challenge subject of communication. Between the damn PT for the knees and trying to finish the garden, I've not had much time lately.

Here is where I'm at. I'm very happy that it is a recognizable old phone, but am so out of my comfort zone using a paint brush and acrylics, I think it shows.

This is on my Canson XL sketchbook. I feared the paper buckling with the acrylic so it seemed smart to paint on a layer of white gesso. All that did was yellow the page when it dried! I started with the sketch, soft pastel pencils for lots of erasing, and added some undertones where my reference photo looked the darkest:

That gesso also smudged up the right side where I was trying to paint in a shadow, that big glob. I painted over it later. Also the ref photo doesn't show all the cord, which is a really strange braided looking thing, so I ignored it for awhile.

The first coat (Prussian blue, thinned with water):

Here is where I'm at now - about 2 more coats in. I still need to get the numbers in there but will probably use a pen. And I want to play around with the shading some more overall, it looks very monotone - but I'm almost done!

My 1950 bungalow has an alcove in the little hallway at the bottom of the stairs that used to be for a telephone. It's now empty, and I thought it might be fun to paint a phone in there. So this was kind of a test to see what I could do. But I'm not sure I want to sully a clean wall with this.

 

[snowbear]

Awesome. I remember those.

I get the buckling all the time with the lighter papers. For these, I don't worry about it.

 

[SquarePeg]

I am without an art space while Princess is home from school for the summer. I may try to squeeze something into my work from home area. Until then all I have room for is sketching. I’ll try to come up with something.

 

[snowbear]

Just send out to a club for a few hours.

 

[terri]

I forgot to post the final image of this phone. The painting from hell - why do I pick up brushes to do anything but broad strokes or backgrounds? Arghhh!!

Anyway, it turned out okay, but I don't think I have another one in me to attempt to paint it into the phone niche in the hallway, which is why I started it. Too much effort for so so results.

I do like Golden Open acrylics, however - glad I found an excuse to try them. They are slow-drying, which means to me that they stick through all my changes and various hand-wringing. They flow as nicely as photo oils. I like them!

 

[snowbear]

I think it's a nice painting, terri. Good rendering of the cord.

 

[terri]

I think it's a nice painting, terri. Good rendering of the cord.

Thanks! The cord looked really strange in the ref photo, not the expected tightly wound things.
I'm so glad it's over!

 

[SquarePeg]

It’s been too long. Gave an abstract a try. It’s just kind of meh but not sure what it needs. Suggestions welcome.