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| 'Over the Dunes' 8x10 pastel ©Karen Margulis available $145 |
I've been told that I am fast and loose. A fast and loose painter that is! It may certainly appear that way but the truth is I am not so much a fast painter as I am an efficient painter. My paintings progress rapidly because I spend time BEFORE picking up a pastel making an action plan for the painting. Armed with a concept, value map and color palette I can approach the paper and simply paint with passion.
A plan allows me to let go and explore without fear of getting totally lost. A plan is my map or my GPS. Will I get there without a map? Sure, but it may take me a lot longer and may not be as enjoyable. A plan can save many hours of frustration and brushing off paintings.
Everyone has their own way of approaching a painting. Some enjoy detailed planning and some of us would rather wing it. I am somewhere in the middle with my planning. But there are some 'must do' items.
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| The finished painting with my plans attached |
- What is my Concept? I always like to begin the plan with asking myself what I want my message to be. What do I want the viewer to see or experience when looking at my painting?
- SIMPLIFY. Next I do a small 3-4 value thumbnail. I simplify my photo or scene if painting plein air into a few simple shapes and assign each shape a value.
- Decide on Color Palette and SELECT MY PASTELS. I pull the pastels I want to use and put them together in a butcher tray. This way I can see if there is color harmony. I like to take an additional step in my planning process to paint a small color study. I like to see if the colors I selected work together. I like to use a 2.5 x 3.5 inch format for the color studies.
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| Using the small thumbnail to start the painting |
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| Starting the painting with a value block in. |
4 comments:
Beautiful! The hardest part I find is selecting my pastels first! I try selecting about 20 or so and always go "outside the box!" A lot! Every time!!!
I agree wholeheartedly with Linda! Color selection is by far what slows me down most. I have the analogous color wheel, have made color charts, and yet am always pulled back to local color when painting. I have yet to find in-depth tutoring (start to finish, step-by-step) on painting color studies in a small format. Karen, I would love to see an Etsy offering or even better, a video on just color selection and how to do color studies from start to finish! I would like to be able to determine the "mood" I want for the piece BEFORE I paint it, if that makes sense. Thank you so much for your daily blogging. It's one of the things I look forward to most in my inbox! Rhonda
I also would like to see a video on color selection: I hear so often something like "I see a little pink in that area" and I look and there's no pink. Or I hear "I chose a different color scheme to change the mood" or "I'm going to add a complimentary color to pop this area" or even "I love this color and want to find a place for it in this composition"...these are all very mysterious to me, and I'd love to hear a master teacher's ideas, or process for this sort of thing.
This is lovely. You should consider entering it in out juried exhibition! Love your work!
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