Today I thought it would be great to have another dose of spring. I have loved forsythia since I was a kid. I have some great memories of a forsythia bush that we had in our backyard that you could actually crawl inside of. It was like being surrounded by sunshine!
This is a work in progress shot of a pastel still life that I started today. I began with a 18×24″ sheet of museum grade Wallis paper mounted on to a sheet of 4 ply mat board. I used a large round bistel brush and toned the paper with a very, very thin wash of oil paint. If you are going to use oil paint as an underpainting, it is important to use a good quality thinner, I use Gamsol by Gamblin. Another must for oil underpainting sucess is to keep the oil paint thin. It should look and feel a little like tea. Think watercolor as you are painting. Let the white of the paper show through for anything white in your set-up
Once the paint had dried, which took very little time because of all the Gamsol, I blocked in the pastel painting with Nupastels and Rembrants. Jumping in with pastels, I did a couple rounds just looking at the big pattern of shapes and values to refine the image left by the oil underpainting. I always like to start with the darks and build up to the lights.
Comments
4 responses to “Forsythia and Copper Canister, work in progress.”
Have you ever used oil pastels as your underpainting, blending with thinner? I really like this just as it is. Love the shimmering quality of the colours.
Your forsythia is in bloom already? I had a beautiful forsythia at my house in Oklahoma and I sure miss it and all of the other flowering bushes. I’m left here in Colorado to admire the gorgeous foothills views and desert-like landscape. A different appreciation.
These are from my florist. I don’t think I could make it through the winter without a trip to the flower shop every now and then for a dose of spring! Yesterday in Minnesota, we got dumped on with 10 inches of snow, and an overnight low of minus 3.