Pastels and Watercolors (and a few other art media)

[terri]

So cute!! Great idea, and great job. Your recipients are going to love them.

 

[snowbear]

The sky is in, though I may go back and lighten it up, and I started the green: trees, shrubs and grass. The odd looking spot at lower-right is a patch of paint that is still wet.

 

[terri]

Coming right along. I like your sky color, a nice deep blue. It's fun watching you build this painting - thanks for sharing your wip photos!

 

[SquarePeg]

After many many winter snow scene tutorials, I tried a few compositions of my own combining the salt technique with wet on wet for the backgrounds and using Dr PH Martin’s bleed proof white for the snow on the trees. I like the bleedproof white more than the white guauche as it can be watered down a bit for splattering but doesn’t lose its bright white tone.

feedback or suggestions welcome!

 

[snowbear]

The salt worked out great.

 

[terri]

They make me cold just looking at them, so that makes them a screaming success! Terrific palette. I just love how you integrated the salt technique here - very effective as a background.

"Dr PH Martin’s bleed proof white" - is this a kind of dense, opaque watercolor, or is it more like an ink? I've never heard of this stuff.

 

[terri]

Here's my latest - I wanted to do another B&W painting, I had fun with it last time. I had a rather famous photo ref for this one.

This is on 12x16" Arches oil paper, my favorite for OP's. I took my Neopastel silver gray stick about down to a nub here. Hard to photograph this one without some glare, but that seems to happen with OP's. I see some smudging to clean up, too.

"Grand piano"

 

[SquarePeg]

Stunning work terri! Beautifully done.

 

[snowbear]

Beautiful, Terri.

The bridge acrylic is almost done. As often happens, I switched up on what I wanted to do with it. Part being lazy, I didn't want to get into all the lines from the mortar on the stone bridge, so I'm going to keep it very loose. I will still try to suggest that it is stone, but not to the detail of the real thing.

 

[terri]

Thanks, Sharon and Charlie!

I will still try to suggest that it is stone, but not to the detail of the real thing.

We call this Impressionism, and we're all fans. Should be great!

 

[SquarePeg]

Finally had a bit of time to use the new inks that Princess gave me for Christmas. I ended up not liking what I started doing and then I added white and blended and went n a different direction. I was using the cheapest paper I had to practice and you can really tell on this first one - it not only buckled quite a bit but it ripped when I removed my tape. Thoughts on these?

 

[snowbear]

I like them.

 

[terri]

Waves can be tough, but I think you did well! I do see the paper buckling - hate having to use cheap stuff, but sometimes it's the more prudent choice.

I like them! Without seeing what you were doing when you decided to make changes, I can only say they turned out nicely. Lots of movement in the water. Did you take any WIP (work in progress) photos for these?

 

[SquarePeg]

I’m back to the snowy landscapes. This one is from a tutorial by Ellen Crimi-Trent

And this is from a photo on Instagram.

I have to say I used the expensive Arches paper on these and it really does make things go so much better and easier to fix mistakes.

 

[snowbear]

The better quality materials do make a difference.