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Showing results for tags 'pastel painting'.
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A pastel painting of Canadian Pacific Railway CP 8856 Powering through early winter snow. From an excellent photo by Canadian photographer Jim Winsor. (Photo used with Jim's very kind permission.) The photo was taken in October 2011 and Jim writes: "This was so far the most significant snowfall we have had yet this year. I braved the elements today to capture this rare for me image of such a beauty. I arrived at this location and it was dull and overcast which soon gave way to a lite blowing snowfall. This beauty could be heard off in the distance and low and behold, out of the blowing snow she came."Free -
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If the painting has been framed behind glass, then the first thing that you need to do is to remove it from the frame. Obviously, it is better to photograph your pastel painting before you have it framed in the first place, if you can! Mount the painting taught and flat on a stiff board - secured with some masking tape around the edges. Site your painting in good, well-diffused light - preferably natural sunlight - in order to bring out the best of the colors. If you have a tripod, set your painting-up so that it is perfectly perpendicular to the camera. If you don't have a tripod, just site the painting in such a position that you can hold the camera perpendicular (or 'square-on') to it without straining yourself! This is very important. You need the camera to be 'square-on' to the painting - otherwise, your image will be distorted. With or without a tripod, your camera also needs to be pointing at the center of the painting and not located off to one side. So, perpendicular to the the surface of the painting and located so that it is pointing at the center of the thing! If you have a tripod, or if you can borrow one, it will allow you to use a longer exposure, without getting any camera shake. This, in turn, will mean that you will be working with a smaller aperture - thus helping to keep the whole painting well focused. You can even get away with photographing the painting behind glass if you use a polarizing filter but, you will always get a better photo if the painting is not framed behind glass. Oh... And don't forget to crop your photo so that it shows only the painting itself... We don't really need to see half of your furniture or the color of your wallpaper!!
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What is the best way of photographing a pastel painting, especially lighting wise, I.E. flash, ambient etc.?
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This tip is from Jennifer Blenkinsopp at ArtWanted.com: You can view her portfolio here: https://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=19853
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The struggle continues...
smb posted a blog entry in Vic Rolfe's Art, Photography and Travel Blog - (formerly smb's Blog)
My first complete painting of 2011... Pretty Po Kami 001 From a selfie taken by a pretty young teenage Filipina girl member of the Pretty Po Kami girls group on Facebook.com There was another painting that I finished in January but it was started back in November of 2010. It was supposed to be erotic art - but it is certainly one of the worst paintings that I have managed to produce in recent years: The struggle continues, as they say! -
Originally posted in the forums: May 10 2006, 08:36 PM I've been getting a bit carried away with my pastels lately. Here's a fairly recent painting that I was quite proud of: This was based on a newspaper photograph, depicting a couple of children trying to keep warm around a camp fire after an earthquake in Nepal.
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Originally posted in the forums: Nov 13 2006, 03:42 AM Rembrandts are a soft pastel? I don't think so!!!!! Depending on the colour, they range from hard to rock hard. You can keep them! And where did this all come about from? I've just wasted a PHP250.00 sheet of 300gsm watercolour paper and God only knows how much fixative and poxy Rembrandts - on a painting that I have just burned. Sorry... I should have taken a picture first, in order to show you how bad it was? In all fairness to the makers of Rembrandt Pastels, I can't blame them for my failure. But, to be honest, I DON'T enjoy painting with them. They are too Damned HARD! They are, however, about the least hard of all the pastels that you can buy in the Philippines - which is the only reason that I use the things! But Soft, they Ain't! Postscript Edit - dated November 18, 2007: Having just re-read the above entry, I think it was actually a little unfair! I have to say this, because I have, in fact, been using Rembrandts, (usually in conjunction with Schmingke and Unison pastels,) ever since I wrote that - over a year ago!!!!!!! OK. The Rembrandts are certainly NOT as soft as Schmingke. However, now that I have developed my technique a little, I find that quite useful in certain circumstances - like, for instance, when I specifically don't want to apply too much colour. I also use them as blending sticks. (I never did get on with those rolled-paper stick things - whatever they call them?) One other area that I do use Rembrandt a lot, is in the initial stages of a pastel painting when working on a heavy watercolour paper. These are usually landscapes. Because the paper is invariably white or off-white, I tend to block in large swathes of background colour with my Rembrandts - then turn these into very rough watercolour washes by going over them with a large "mop" type watercolour brush with plenty of clean water. That way, I create my own multi-colour tinted paper before I start the painting. So, whilst what I wrote in the original post above was what I found to be true at the time of writing, I have now revised my opinion of Rembrandt pastels. I DO find them very useful and I sincerely apologize to the makers of Rembrandt pastels for my previous, hasty, and not very accurate comments!
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Today, I managed to get started on a new pastel painting. (Apart from finishing-off another one that I started last year sometime, this is my first art of 2012!!) The initial outline of my painting, at the end of the first session. Up until today, I had only ever painted from photographs. Photography is a hobby of mine and, as much as possible, I try to use my own photographs as reference material. However, my printer has been out of ink for some time and I have not been able to buy a replacement cartridge. So, today was different! For the first time ever, I started something purely from scratch, using nothing more than my imagination. Having just about run out of excuses, to put off the day when I knew I had to pick up a stick of pastel again; I attached a blank sheet of paper to my board. And then I sat there and just stared at it, refusing to leave my studio until a scene came into my mind and pastel had been applied to paper. At one point, I even considered taking-up abstract art painting! I thought about just putting a few random strokes of colour on the paper and then seeing what developed from that. Later, I almost started to attempt a mighty steam locomotive pulling a train past a station platform - which, for some reason, was going to be full of people completely wrapped-up in their cell phones... Anyway, a pretty tame scene that I knew I could handle purely from imagination, with no reference material at all, came to mind. It's nothing more than a simple view of a garden, as seen through the kitchen window of a country cottage with pink walls inside the kitchen. Not very ambitious, I know - but I just wanted to get started with something and I figured that it needed to be a simple scene... Maybe, once I get back into the swing of things, I can try something a little more ambitious? I have wanted for the longest time to be able to paint from memory and also from imagination. Now, just because my printer is out of ink, I have finally been forced to give it a try. This is not even the slightest hint of a shuffle for anyone else - but it is one massive leap for me!!
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Two firsts!
smb posted a blog entry in Vic Rolfe's Art, Photography and Travel Blog - (formerly smb's Blog)
The completion of my latest painting represents two 'firsts' for me! Firstly, having been struggling with issues of lack of inspiration, finding the time and actually being able to complete my previous painting, (started last year sometime) - this is my first complete painting of the year 2012 Secondly, this is my first ever painting that was not based on a photograph - and no photographic reference material was used - not even for the large (lily-like?) flower... The koi pond, right in the middle of that lovely, rough and very green cottage garden lawn was just my idea of a perfect view from my ideal kitchen window! Let me know what you think! Window With a View -
Originally posted in the Forums: Nov 13 2006, 03:51 AM Oh, Here's one that I didn't burn... A sexy, very pretty blonde girl with lovely breasts!! I know that most people will think it is a pretty corny painting but, who gives a damn?! I enjoyed doing it, and I like it! And, I have to admit, it was done mostly in Rembrandts... So why am I getting hot under the collar about Rembrandts? Because I have completely run out of my Schmingke SOFT pastels, I can't afford to order any more over the internet, at the moment - and I couldn't have done this... without them! ...Reason being that the above painting uses a lot of acrylic modelling paste, mixed with sand, in order to get the textures for the grass and the rocks. If you try to use anything other than a really soft pastel for this, when you try to cover up the sanded modelling paste, most of the pastel ends up as dust on the floor. And, if you are not careful, you can wear your fingers down to the bone!!
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Originally posted in the Forums: Jan 2 2007, 08:04 AM Not so much of a struggle now! Here's my latest 'work in progress...' Jelyn Nakaupo sa Motor ni Ate! - (In progress) Who knows how this will turn out. All I can say is that I am enjoying myself here! Watch this space!
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Jumong and Shoubi
smb posted a blog entry in Vic Rolfe's Art, Photography and Travel Blog - (formerly smb's Blog)
I haven't had much time for painting lately but one I did manage to finish recently was a little commemorative pastel for a lovely dog... Jumong and Shoubi Just a small pastel painting that I done as a way of remembering Shoubi's best mate, Jumong - who sadly died while I was away on my recent commission at sea. The official story that I was given was that Jumong got sick and died. Not surprising really, as he spent most of the last months of his life in misery, tied up on a short piece of chain and hardly cared for. More likely though, he would have been killed for food? Despite the appalling conditions under which he was being kept, Jumong was a tough little dog... Anyway, whether he died, or was killed, I know for a fact that Jumong's carcass was not wasted. He did not get buried and he certainly had no flowers. So I decided to use a bit of artistic license and put some in the painting for him... Whilst in the mood for painting dogs, I decided to do a portrait for my Pit Bull Terrier cross, Shoubi. The first one came out a bit dark and Shoubi ended-up looking quite "foxy." I had another go and, for the first time ever, my second attempt at a painting resulted in an actual improvement over the first. Shoubi - Two Still far from perfect, I managed to get the coloring of her coat a bit more like the real thing. I need to work on getting the texture of the fur right, next time I try to paint a dog - but this will do for now...!! Help to support ArtFreaks.com as a free website for amateur and professional artists and photographers: Shop discount arts and crafts supplies at MisterArt.com! -
I have had countless problems with pastel fixatives and I have totally ruined many a good painting by using too much of the stuff. The first solution here is to use as little as you can get away with - and never fix your final layer. Just be very careful with the painting until you can get it framed behind glass... However, if like me - (and as suggested in another tip by Jennifer Blenkinsopp) - you like to work in layers; you will definitely not be able to completely avoid using pastel fixatives. My advice here is to simply go for the very highest quality product that you can lay your hands on... For one thing, the price of a very high-quality pastel fixative will put you off using too much of it!! And you will stand much less chance of getting any very undesirable "frosting" effects if you do accidentally use too much. My fixative of choice is the one made for pastels by Senellier. (Senellier also do a very similar fixative which has been formulated especially for charcoal drawings. I find that it also works very well with pastels but it does seem to be a bit lighter - and so you really need to use more of it when working with pastels...) I can not get hold of Senellier fixative in the Philippines but I find that the museum grade varnish, satin, produced by "Golden" suites my purposes quite well. The only real problem that I have with the Golden varnish is that it takes quite a while to dry. But then again, that usually gives me a good excuse to go out for a beer! I buy my Golden varnish at Diovir's in Santa Cruz, Manila I wouldn't touch any of the other so-called fixatives that you can buy in National Bookstore, with a bargepole!!
