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Sunday, August 21, 2016

Sunday Studio Live Demo: Choosing a Pastel Palette for a Marsh Painting

'Moody Marsh'         9x12        pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $145
It was bound to happen. Technical difficulties with my weekly live videos! At least it happened at a convenient cut-off point. And I probably could figure out how to edit them together but for now they are two separate videos. My camera man husband accidentally pressed the finished button when I wasn't finished! The perils of live video!  Here is a recap in cased you missed the videos.

In the first 7 minute video I talked about how I choose pastels for a painting. I put my working palette into a butcher tray so that I am working with a limited palette. Having ALL of my pastels available when I paint is a recipe for color chaos!

Choosing pastels for a painting

Steps to choosing a working palette

  • Do a small black and white thumbnail. 
  • Decide on main colors (color scheme) I usually choose by intuition but will sometimes consult a color wheel.
  • Test main colors on the thumbnail or scrap paper.
  • Once main colors are selected I add them to a tray and choose the remainder of the pastels.
  • I add the pastels to the tray and keep them grouped by LANDSCAPE ELEMENT.
  • I usually consider VALUE first then color. Local color if used at all comes last. I think about layering color.
  • I start adding colors to the tray by selecting my darkest values for the darkest parts of the painting . I usually choose 4-5 pastels of the same value for the darks.
  • Then I select the LIGHTS. In a landscape this is usually the sky. I keep them in the 'sky pile'
  • Then I select pastels for the remaining elements of the scene....distant trees, grass, flowers, etc. I also choose middle value pastels to layer under any grass. This is the dirt.

That's it! Now I have a limited palette that keeps me out of trouble. If I need to add more pastels I will add them to the tray so I can keep track and try to reuse rather than reach for a new pastel.



The pastels selected for today's painting 
You can watch the video of the painting demonstration on my YouTube channel. Here is the link.

3 comments:

  1. That was a great demo. I would love to see you, in a future demo, return later and make your final spice marks on video with some discussion about your thoughts after moving away and thinking about it for a bit.

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  2. Loved your video again. I like what Christy said about your spice marks. I would love to see the finished product on the video if you can do it.
    I am so grateful to you both for the time you spend bringing us these. Thank you.

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  3. Thank you!!! I appreciate your watching the video and for your suggestions. I don't know how to show the finish on the video without making it too long! I really do need to walk away before I make the final marks. Facebook Live doesn't let you pick up where you left off. It starts a new video. The only other way to show the finishing marks would be to do a video that I film and edit.(not a live demo) It really is too time consuming to do that every week. I will always post the finished painting on my blog. Thanks again for watching!!

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