Spirit Horse

Pastel on prepared surface, 45 x 60 cm

More experiments with abstraction - Spirit Bear series

Spirit Bear I

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

Spirit Bear II

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

Northern Lights Spirit Bear

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

Private collection.

Spirit Bear III

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

As the Ravens Series in the previous post, the paper received a watercolor underpainting, then the drawing was made on top, then a layer of acrylic ground for pastels applied and finally the pastel was applied to create the painting. The texture created by the acrylic ground can be seen in all the paintings created this way. This adds interest and variety to the work, and it is a lot of fun!

More experiments with abstraction - Ravens series

Harvest Moon Raven

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

Private collection

Reflection

Pastel on prepared surface, 15 x 25 cm

Happy Crow

Pastel on prepared surface, 15 x 25 cm

Red Raven; Yellow Raven

Pastel on prepared surface, 15 x 25 cm each

Crazy Crow

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

Mystery and Magik

Pastel on prepared surface, 19 x 25 cm

Blue Moon Raven

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

Mystical Raven

Pastel on prepared surface, 28 x 35 cm

This series has been done following the teachings of Debora L. Stewart on abstracted realism and her way of handling the surface pastel is applied to. Starting with a sturdy paper, a watercolor underpainting is created. When it dries out the drawing is made, a coating of acrylic ground for pastels applied on top, and finally the actual pastel work. It is more involved, but an interesting texture results from all this and more colors and undertones can be realized, A lot of fun and surprises!

Underpainting with complementary colours

In this piece I started by using complementary colours throughout the whole painting, maintaining the values in the original reference photo (I used a black and white photocopy to help me see the values better).
So, the sky was different shades of orange, as was the water. The building was green, the shadows were yellow.

The white parts of the clouds were... white. White is not a color - it is light, it has no complementary. Black is not a colour - it is absence of light, it has no complementary either.
When I finished the complementary underpainting, it looked very "interesting", like a Mars landscape... (a "Marscape"?)
So I went back and applied the "real" colour on top, and voila! we are back on Earth - Peggy's Cove, to be precise.

Using complementary colours as an underpainting to a landscape theme adds luminosity to it.
It is painted on sandpaper with soft pastels and measures 0.3 x 0.46m.