Pastels EVERYWHERE

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Just had to share.....I have 2 Wonderful workspaces set up with floor easels in our home.  Usually pastels at one and oils at the other.  So, here I am using one of my table easels I usually reserve for students at workshops.... 

I spent this morning looking through photos I've taken and the short of it....they look better on the computer monitor.  Gotta love the versatility of setting up pastels ANYWHERE....covered the keyboard and here we go.  I have Pandora playing my dance club music and I'm in my zone.

Happy~ Happy~Happy!

Finished commission

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Here is the final work "Mason House Inn" Bentonsport, IA.  24"x36"  Oil

I left the image here on the easel instead of cropping.....otherwise the sides would've looked off.  I shot the picture at a bit of an angle to cut down the glare of the oil paint.  The center of the painting  is lighter then the sides as well.  It's just not my best at taking a picture of a picture.  That's something for me to work on.

#5 - Mason House Inn

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Here I've darkened the road and started working on the shadow side of the main building. The toned canvas really pops out here.   Yes, there's quite a bit to do yet on the front of the brick ....shutters to add and fine tune the windows.    I have some tweaking to do in the road as well.  I think the foreground is done.  I added strokes here and there that look like blades of grass.

The next image will be the final work.  I'm anxious to see it all pulled together.

#4 Mason House Inn

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I've established the road out front of the Inn and created a grassy area on the other side.  Also added more in the treeline and Caboose area.  Deeper grays and light brown will be added to the road.  It is currently a gravel road, but I imagine back in the day, it was all packed dirt.

I'm saving what I consider the hard part for last....the brick and windows.  I'm not using a ruler to create straight lines...this is all freehand.  To me, it makes for a more interesting piece, not a duplicate of a photograph. 



#3 of Mason House Inn

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Added some shadows here and there and working more darks in.  I take several breaks from having brush on canvas.  I step back and study the composition/color/value often as I progress on a work.  More tomorrow..........

#2 of art commission

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Here I'm progressing in the treeline behind the building. The time of year is Fall and there are so many lush colors in the trees.  I've also added the hotest highlighted area in the work.

Tomorrow #3

Here's the beginning....

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Oil 24"x36"

This is the beginning of a commission I'm working on.  I started this a month ago.  I thought I'd share each step along the way .  Here's Day #1.  Check back tomorrow for #2.

As you can see here....I usually tone my canvas instead of painting directly on a fresh white surface.  I tend to like using light red too.  Just something about red to me.  It's gotta be somewhere in my work.

Next step is transfering a light drawing from a sheet of paper where I work out details.  Most the time I like to just us oils and place contour lines to start.  When working on a project like this, I need to have a more precise placement of objects in the image.