Life's a Beach

Another pastel on velour paper, hope you are not getting sick of these.

This couple had broken out a couple of beers in the Texas heat at a car show. I decided they needed to be on the beach instead. I did put a car image on the man's t'shirt though, at least he looks authentic as a car enthusiast.

Walking the Dog

I wanted to make a very quick attempt at this, and keep it very tonal.. The girl was walking at a local mall last week, with her little dog, and I managed a very quick photo of her as she walked away. The shadows of the buidings on the sidewalk were very interesting and the way the light flashed on the pathway.

Tight Squeeze

So here is the finished result.

I hope you enjoyed this process, I am simply loving this velour paper, even though it has many 'quirks' I still am to master.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Tight Squeeze Stage Four

The red car is next on the left. There is very little showing, however it is vital to the picture, and to the 'Tight Squeeze' title .. After this I begin the refections of the little boy on the right, in the right hand car, along with a passerby's refection mirrored in that car.

I add to this refection as I progress through other stages, but at least the main thought is there for me to build on.

The background placed me in a quandary, as in my photo, there were cars and people everywhere, way to busy for me.

I decided to use a couple of old cars from other photos I had, and leave some space to the right of them, so not too much focus was taken from my main subjects.

Tight Squeeze Stage Three

The little boys' shorts are now mapped in, and I end this stage with the mother's pants and t'shirt, blocking in with soft pastels now, in a mid gray then overlapping with the actual colors of the jeans and or shorts.

I only use the pencil pastels when I have more details to refine.

Tight Squeeze Stage Two

I began with the most involved and fiddly part to me. The striped t'shirts.
I used pastel pencils on these, carefully using a tissue under my hand to protect the paper as I used a more defined drawing technique.

Tight Squeeze First Stages

I saw this woman at an antique car show, juggling two little boys, twins I think, through two of the cars. The day was dun for me to take lots of photos, but the heat (105 degrees) was tough.
I decided to snap a quick photo and try this subject, which was a tedious one to some degree, with all the refelctions in the car.

So this stage shows the transfer of my own drawing onto velour paper. I have been (in the past) using carbon transfer paper, for this step.

I have however, found that using a sgraffito line, (pressure) into the velour paper, works better for me, way less messy. After the line is impressed into the paper, I reinforce with a pastel pencil, which fills the indent.

I Just Don't Get It, Do You?

I saw this guy in Alaska,(he was such a large fellow) and the older lady in Italy,(she was so small) so combined them both to place them in a modern art museum looking at Bleu II by Miro. The other painting is by Mark Rothko..

Another pastel on velour paper, still enjoying the process.
Hope you do also.

Flower Power

Felt like a day at the beach t0oday, the colors are a lot richer than this shows, (?) not sure why that's happened in my photograph, will perhaps try again in the near future.

These ladies are on a beach called Chinamen's Beach in Sydney, Australia.

Although I was quite a distance away from them so taking this photo for details was hard, even with my great camera and the help of Photoshop. So a lot of the accessories are made up, towels, chair etc.

Eye of the Beholder

This one is hot off the presses. I just finished it.

The man was in Seattle, on a recent trip there. Although he was outside a cafe at the time of this shot, I wanted something bright and BOLD in the background of this picture, and as I love graffiti, just not on my house ..please... the idea came to me for this backdrop.

I had a photo of this 'eye' poster on a wall in Australia, and decided to use it, with my own (not so professional) lettering over the top of it.
These graffiti artists are very talented, just wish they could direct their talents to a more receptive audience.

I used the brick overlay to knock all the background back, and although it is very much a feature, I hope you can decipher the figure in the foreground.

Red, White and Blue

I just finished this one today. The women were all outside the Bob Bullock Museum a few weeks back, and I made a composite of them, all from different photos.

Challenging, but fun to do.

Novel Readers

I had this photo of an artist pal of mine while she was sketching on a painting trip to Ajijic in Mexico, and decided to place her (instead) in a museum with Van Gogh's 'Novel Reader' in the background.

My sketch of this figure was a lot more like my friend, but somehow I lost her likeness in the transition, oh well.
It is what it is.

Hippies

What can I say, it's such a perfect title for the two women in this one. LOL.

I posed for this myself, and got my husband to take the picture.

I decided before I drew this what the title would be, and just had to place a Botero woman in the background, then the title suited the image to a 'T'.

Goddess and the Gods

I needed to address the lefthand background, and decided at the last minute to place another statue in there.
The floor was now addressed also, and the refections. As you will notice all those original strong colors in the floor are now subdues and more natural.

Stage Three

I begin to treat the statue in the same way as the girl, over the middle and dark vaules I place the mid highlights and the the highest lights. I 'sculpt the body contours this way. Excuse the pun.

Stage Two

My first step after the transfer is to block in the mid and darker tones. On the t'shirt I use a red, even though the shirt will eventually be yellow. The pants are blocked in with a mid gray and then a darker navy blue. The statue in the back is blocked in with shades of charcoal gray and then black.
I then switch to the middle value lights. These are dragged over the darks and dark middle values, to settle them back. The highlights are then addess on the light side of the objects in this case, the t'short, the pants, the statue.
My pressure at this stage is still very light. Velour paper will 'fill' very quickly, so one has to be careful.
The floor is lightly sketched in, again I use a pretty strong color, in this case it was an orange yellow. I know this will be subdued later.
I have learned that one can knock back the strong colors and it gives your paintings a wonderful 'glow' if you start with a pretty strong 'attack'.

Stage one (the transfer)

Well here we go again, I had such a positive reaction on the last step by step demo, I decided to do another one.
This lass was outside the Bob Bullock Museum the other day when I got this photo. I then placed her in the Blanton Museum, sort of like "beam me up Scottie" huh?

This is my original drawing from my photos, then the transfer onto my pastel paper, the latter gets quite smudged if you lean too hard on it while tracing, I am learning to lighten my pressure with practise.

Drama Queens

This is a good friend of mine (another artist) , she was actually posing for me, in front of another pal's painting (not in this picture). I thought her pose was too stiff and was not going to use it, but in the end, I decided to make it a really campy picture with the backdrop. I am very happy with this one, hope Sue is, she was my model.

We Start That Diet Tomorrow, Okay?

On a recent cruise to Alaska I took the photo of this lady on a bench in Ketchikan. I made the background and the doggy up, and I am sure I put a few extra pounds on this poor lady as I love rotund people to draw. Actually the little dog grew fat before my eyes too, LOL. The idea of the cake shop in the background is a little tongue in cheek as you can tell, just for grins.

Stop! Don't Walk!

A bit of a change of pace with a city scene instead of gallery people. I did take the photo of the man in a gallery though, but decided to jazz him up with a red shirt (he had a pale green shirt on in the photo) and then decided to put the cars in the background. I just bought a Cube car like the yellow one, so it was on my mind I guess. I don't proffess to be great at drawing cars though, I have to practise that ..

Stage Eight.. Suspenders

So now I am almost done, this is the last picture before the finished painting, the trapeze artist is coming along, the floor needed more tweaking, and the darks within the figure needed to be addressed, so he would stand out from the back drop. Thanks for staying with me on this one, it was fun to give you a running step by step process. See the very first picture in this group, for the finished result.

Stage Seven.. Suspenders

The floor was started in the same manner as the suspenders, with a bright red, then an overlay of the orange/yellow.

The background was drawn in freehand, from the reference photo I took at the museum.

Stages Five and Six.. Suspenders

The checkered shirt and the pants are now started. I have never done checks before, and they got tedious, so I did a pretty 'creative' check pattern, and the pants were blocked in with shades of brown middle values, then the highlights.

Stage four.. Suspenders

Now for the shirt, I use a mid blue to drag over the black pastel and soften it, this gives a more natural feel to the creases in the shirt.

Then I add a light blue for the highlights.

Stage Three ..Suspenders

Even thought he suspenders will be reddish in color, I use a bright yellow first, as un undercoat, I feel this gives a brighter result.

Stage Two.. Suspenders

My next step is to block in my mid tones, I use a dark pastel for this, however sometimes, if it's a blue blouse/shirt I will block in with a mid blue/gray, but this time I went with a black pastel, and used it gently. The choice is really up to the artist.

Stage one.. Suspenders

I always begin with my own sketch which is on the left. It is to scale already to fit my pastel paper, and I do it freehand while sitting watching TV..

The next step is to transfer my drawing with transfer paper to the velour paper, it can be smudgy, with the pressure one puts on the surface to trace the drawing, but it's not hard to deal with. I noticed right away that my drawing is out to my photo, but went ahead with it anyway, too lazy to adjust.

Suspenders

This painting began with a photo of the model while at the pastel convention in Alburqueque a few years back. The man in the supenders is actually Albert Handell, a very well known pastel artist, and he was watching a demo at the time I took this photo.

The background was a painting showing in the Blanton Museum last week, and I connected the imagery with the mode'ls red suspenders. Trapeze artist, red suspenders, get it?

I took step by step photos of this painting, I hope you get some idea of how I work on this velour paper and I hope this does not become too intrusive in your mail box if you subscribe to my blog, my apologies in advance if it is.