Blah Tent Problem Solved!

I participated in 2nd Saturdays yesterday at the Duke Homestead Tobacco Museum in Durham.  The night before I painted a drop cloth that I purchased at Lowes.  I do have to say that I God blessed me because a couple of days before, my mom had attempted to paint her kitchen red.  That red turned out to be a gorgeous pink!  She of course was upset but I had the perfect use for her paint!   It turns out that the pink matched my booth tablecloth!  I painted some dandelions on it and voila!  So if your looking for a way to spice up your booth maybe you should consider something like mine!  For those of you interested, a question that I get a lot at these fairs is, What did I make my weights to hold the tent down with?  I filled ziploc bags with sand and I bought matching napkins that go with my tablecloth and wrapped them around the sandbags.  Pretty simple and they are just pretty!

First Craft Fair of the Season

I know its kind of late in the season to be starting craft fairs but because of my day job that is just the way that it has worked out.  I would have liked to have done some earlier ones but "say la v"  (thats my American spelling!) The wonderful Alamance County Arts Council hosted a family fun and art day.  Artists were allowed to set up out on the lawn.  I am so grateful that they allowed me to participate!

Last week I bought some new displays that I really like.  What I haven't figured out is how to arrange my booth.  Saturday I thought it looked pretty good but now that I'm seeing it through my camera's eye I can tell why I didn't have a ton of people interested...because it didn't look really inviting...or interesting!  Any ideas of what I can do to make it look more exciting?  This last picture I moved one of the displays to the middle in the back.  Before it was behind the sign. 

Painting with Pastels

I started and may have finished a pastel painting today and thought that I would show my process.  This is the next step that I take after drawing which I demonstrated in a previous post.  I roughly laid in some color.  A painting is very ugly in its early stages!  I want the Iris to pop so I put a dark blue in the background.  The technique that I am using for this painting involves layering the pastel.  I will put other colors on top of the dark blue.  When layering your pastels remember that the base color will affect the final layer!

In this stage I added some darks and lightened the background.  The edges are starting to emerge but some are still ambiguous.  Colors are important but so is value.  Don't ask me which is more important because I think they are equally important!  There are a lot of artists out there that are Pro Value and others that are Pro Color but I say why not have both?  To determine your values squint at your subject.  Squinting gets rid of the details and lets you see in bigger chunks making painting easier.  You'll look silly but believe me its worth it!  Another valuable tool is a value scale.  I bet you didn't know that if you squint and put your value scale over it you will find a value at which even the brightest color will match one of the shades of gray on your scale.  I hope you understood that last little bit, if its unclear just comment and I'll try to clarify.

At this point I've gone back and defined more edges.  Added some more darks back into the background and noodled around (put in details) in the flowers.  The last step is to put in the lightest lights.  Its good not to overuse your highlights because it has a tendency to wash your painting out.  I have keep this painting loose and showed all of my marks.  If I wanted a smooth looking Iris I would blend the pastel with my finger or color shaper.  Instead, I have chosen to let my marks be apart of the flower.  I said at the beginning that I may haves finished a pastel today because I always like to leave it up on my easel or leaning against the wall so that I can pop my head into my studio and check it out.  Over the course of a few days I will be able to tell if I need to change anything but as for right now I am calling this one finished! Update....It is finished and you can purchase it on Etsy!

Starting a Pastel, The Drawing

I wrote previously about what brands of pastel and paper I like.  Today I thought I would go over how to start a painting.  Depending on how I am feeling I start one of two ways.  The first, is to start the drawing on the pastel paper with vine charcoal.  If I am raring to go and limited on time this is usually how I start. However, sometimes that backfires on me because if I don't spend enough time in the drawing stage then there is a greater chance that I will have to spend more time fixing the drawing later on in the process.

                                Original Drawing

  The second way, and my favorite way, to start the pastel is to do the drawing on a regular piece of drawing/sketch paper and then transfer it to your pastel paper.  Transferring is good for beginners because it allows you to get your drawing worked out without messing up your expensive pastel paper.  If you do your original drawing on a piece of paper to transfer then you will always be able to copy it again and paint it later in a different medium or colors etc.  Plus, I just like to have the original drawing.

                                          Tracing Paper with Charcoal on Back
Once you have your drawing to the level you want it then you take a piece of tracing paper and trace your drawing.  It is a good idea to tape your tracing paper to your drawing so that if your hand slips or you have to step away from your drawing then the tracing paper will still be in place.  I always make two X's on opposite corners of the original drawing then mark the X's on the tracing paper and that ensures that I always have the tracing paper in the correct position.   When your done tracing flip it over and cover it with vine charcoal or white pastel.  If you have a light piece of pastel paper then use the vine charcoal.  If you have a dark piece of pastel paper then use the white pastel.  Put the drawing charcoal/pastel side down and then trace it again.  It will leave vine charcoal/white pastel on your pastel paper and now your ready to start painting!!!

I always keep my original drawings for later but I also save my tracing sheets so that if I decide to use the same drawing later I can skip the 1st tracing step.

Drawing transferred to Wallis paper and lines made darker with blue pastel 








                                                                          

New to Pastels?

I was reading a blog of a fellow artist that I met on Twitter which you can find here. She was asking about getting started in pastels, what is a good brand to use etc. I tried to comment on her blog but for some reason it didn't go through. I figured this would be a good subject for a blog post so I'm about to hit you all with some knowledge...or experience...or whatever you want to call it!

To start I was trained in pastels by the most awesomest, Betty Shelton, at Laguna College of Art and Design. Yes, I know awesomest is not a word but I'm an artist not a writer! I also took at workshop a couple of years ago with Diana Ponting I have pretty much worked exclusively in pastels since my daughter was born 3 years ago except for one oil painting I did for a friend.

I started out with the largest set of hard Nupastels (96 pieces) available. This is a good starter set. If you can't afford 96 get the largest set you can afford. Hard pastels have more binder than pigment which makes them harder. When you paint/draw on your paper harder pastels leave less color on the page whereas soft pastel leave more. Its easier to learn with hard pastel because it does not fill up the tooth of the paper as quickly. Once the tooth is filled it is extremely hard to get anymore pastel to go on the page!

I usually start with hard Nupastel and then add soft pastels on top. This allows me to tone the paper without filling the tooth. My favorite brands of soft pastel are Rembrandt and Terry Ludwig. I purchased the set of 120 Rembrandts 60 full sticks, 60 half sticks. I have been extremely happy with variety. I have a special set of darks from Terry Ludwig. It is very important to invest in darks as soon as your finances allow! It brings a wonderful depth to your paintings. I have a couple of sets of Sennielier which I hardly ever use. I purchased them before trying any of that brand and then found out that I wasn't a fan. I suggest before investing in a large set that you purchase a few open stock pastels and take them for a test drive. They may be more costly when purchased separately but it will save you money in the long run when you can put more money towards a brand you love!

When to use soft and/or hard pastels?
Like I said earlier I usually start with Nupastels. I go in with Rembrandt pretty early because even though they are soft pastels they are on the harder side of soft. I use softer pastels on top to give it a rich velvety texture, especially in the light areas because it helps the lights to pop off the page, like when oil painting you layer thick paint in the lights and keep the dark areas thin. I sometimes go back on top of soft pastels with hard pastels for a different effect. You can push soft pastels down into the tooth of the paper with hard pastels.

In her blog Vanessa had expressed concern that the longer you use hard pastels the harder it is to transfer over to using soft pastels. I haven't found that to be the case at all. I actually feel that the longer I used hard pastels the easier it was for me to figure out how to use soft pastels. Soft pastels are fun but they can be very frustrating when you can't quite figure out how to use them. I think the biggest problem when learning to use soft pastel is that it feels the tooth of the paper so quickly that you can't layer any more pastel.

That brings us to paper! I started out on mi tientes canson paperr. This paper at the time I thought was expensive but now I think it is really affordable! It is easily found at Micheal's or Hobby Lobby for a couple of dollars a sheet. The next paper that I tried and fell in love with was Sennelier LaCarte pastel paper. It feels almost like sandpaper but much softer. The biggest problem with LaCarte paper is that it can not handle water at all. If you blow on you paper and you happen to get a little bit of spittle on the paper do not touch it. You must wait for it to dry completely or else the texture of the paper will fall off you will be left with a spit sized white spot that won't accept pastel! Colorfixpaper by Art Spectrum is another one that feels like sandpaper. I have only used it once but would really like to give it another try. My new favorite paper is Kitty Wallis paper. It takes tons of layers of pastel, you can get it wet...its actually really cool when you get it wet. Kitty Wallis paper takes tons of abuse! You can erase on it or totally obliterate your picture with water and the paper still looks like new!

Well I guess this is enough information. I hope I didn't overwhelm ya'll!

Please excuse the mess!

I know my photo is messy but thats just who I am. I am also broke! Just like everyone else! Even though I have no money I still needed a flat file. For those of you who don't know what a flat file is, it is a large file with thin drawers so that you can store paper in it. It keeps your paper nice and crease free! They start around $400-$500 and go up. I made my own, and yes it is very ghetto!

To make your own flat file, take 2 cinder blocks and put them on the floor. Add a piece of wood in the size you need, I think mine is 30x45 or something like that. Then get 4 small bricks or pavers and stick in each corner. Then you keep layering until you get the amount of storage space you need. And later if you need more space just add more wood and bricks! Its that simple. I hope someone else can use this tip! I love it! I think total it cost me $10 because I used wood I already had, I bet if I had to buy the wood it wouldn't have been more than $20 or $30.