fresh off my dusty easel, pastels by christine dimauro: November 2013

Friday, November 22, 2013

Last Tuesday's Portrait workshop sketch, 15" x 12" painted on Canson MT

I belong to a local art group that meets every Tuesday. Two Tuesdays a month we do a portrait workshop (I wish it were at least three Tuesdays a month... oh well...). I ended up with something I liked this past Tuesday, so I thought I would share it here.
What I want to share is the success I think I had in capturing skin tone while keeping it loose. I spent at most an hour's time painting this, which for me is pretty fast. I'm finding (as I am sure you all know already, as do I) that the more I do this the faster I get, and the more confident I feel. The moral of this story is, "paint, paint, paint, as much as you can, it does make a difference"...

Anyway, here it is, my one hour sketch painted on Canson paper, (the color is Sand), using Giraults, with a smattering of old Grumbachers, and maybe a Rembrandt or two...... I started out with a charcoal value sketch, and went in with the pastels, working dark to light.

"Timberpoint Morning", Pastel, 7" x 10", Painted on Canson MT paper

Well, I thought I would do a quick sketch using a photo I took at a local marina. A few years ago I had taken a drive there early in the morning to capture the morning light. It's a simple composition, so I thought just a quick sketch to get me painting.... well, after two days of painting, I guess it doesn't count as a quick sketch does it?

It's small, only 7"x10", painted on Canson MT, felt gray, using Mount Visions, Unisons, Art Spectrums, Senneliers, and maybe one Great American. I am trying to work out simplifying grasses, as well as capture the light.

This blog features mostly pastels, however I do enjoy working with gouache, watercolors, inktense blocks and pencils, charcoal and graphite pencils. My easel is always dusty, but that doesn't stop me from experimenting and trying new things. Keeping a sketchbook has become my new second passion, and these other mediums allow me to sketch in color; pastels are not the best medium for sketchbooks, so I had to find something else.

As long as I am creating art I'm happy. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoy creating it.

Recommended reading

I love books, especially art books. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Changing Seasons in Pastel or The Pastelist's Year, by Elizabeth Mowry (Her work is magical, her paintings just sing. I also love the way she writes, I own every book she's written.)

Landscape Meditations, by Elizabeth Mowry (You know why....)

The Poetic Landscape by, Elizabeth Mowry (If she had more books, I'd own them.)

Painting the Landscape in Pastel, by Albert Handel (It's Albert Handell, need I say more?)

Intuitive Light, by Albert Handell (Another Albert Handell, need I say more?)

Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, by John F. Carlson (The workhorse of landscape books, not an easy read but full of useful information, always a go-to book when a question arises.)

Landscape Painting, Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice, by Mitchell Albala (some excellent information on landscape composition for any media.)

Pastel Pointers, by Richard McKinley (An all around great book for pastel landscapes.)

Powerful Watercolor Landscapes, by Catherine Gill (this one has excellent information on composition, great for all media not just watercolor.)

The Painterly Approach, by Bob Rohm (It's just that, a painterly approach, and can be easily applied to pastels.)

Your Artist's Brain, by Carl Purcell (This book is great for a beginner, it gives you basics not always touched upon even in advanced books. For advanced painters these reminders are great, we all get moments of brain fog. Much of what is in this book I learned the hard way, I wish I had known about it at the very beginning of my art journey.)