Hint of the Month

Pastel demonstration for the Evergreen Art Association.

 I decided to use this demonstration to illustrate a color principle.  I asked a dozen or so people in the audience to pick out the colors I would start the painting with.   I asked them to avoid those colors that were actually in the scene. 

I explained that color harmony was usually achieved by one color weaving most of the painting together.  I further explained, that if I wanted to get into trouble with color the best way was for me to get as many colors going in the beginning as possible.  By having a lot of people choose colors to start the painting with,  I was intentionally setting myself up for problems. 

I used all the colors which had been preselected for me.  I was careful to use the darker sticks in the dark shapes the light sticks in the light shapes and the middle value sticks in the middle value shapes. 

After each of the colors was used, I took one stick of color, of the appropriate value, and scumbled it over and into each of the shapes.  For example I took a dark stick of pastel and scumbled it into and over all the dark colors which had been used in the dark shapes.  In a similar way I scumbled all the light colors together with a light stick of pastel, and I scumbled all of the middle valued colors together with middle value pastel.  To explain it in a different way, I united each shape by weaving a single color into it.  

Evergreen demo (step 1) 14 x 15 ©Doug Dawson

This image above is the painting as it appeared at the end of the demo.    A number of people requested that I  post the finished painting on the web so they could see how it turned out.    The finished painting is below.

Evergreen demo finished 14 x 15 ©Doug Dawson

If someone told you about the instructions for making the wire baskets for pastels, thy are still available.  If you would like a copy of the step by step illustration describing how to make the baskets, send  an email to dougdawson8@aol.com.  You don't have to write a note just write the word Baskets in the Subject heading and I will send you the visuals with instruction.