Sunday Studio Video Demo: Using a Notan Underpainting

'The Magic Hour Returns'         8x10       pastel      ©Karen Margulis
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In case you missed this one....here is a post and video from the archives. We are studying underpainitng on my Patreon page and I will be adding more videos like this one! 

It was Sunday Studio time once again. Time for another Facebook Live broadcast of a daily painting. I had a great time sharing and answering questions for the 100+ viewers who tuned in. For those of you who missed the broadcast it is still available on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/rGMifRKG78k

Here are a few behind the scenes photos and thoughts of the painting before I started  the demo.

This painting was started in a different manner than last week's forest demo. Instead of a 4 value color underpainting I decided to work on white paper and do a black and white underpainting. I wanted to enhance the contrast of the dark shapes of the trees against the light sky of the sunset.
I began with a black and white 2 value thumbnail (notan) This simplified the busy reference photo.

To create the black underpainting I used Art Graf pigment blocks. It take very little coverage of the dry pigment to make a dark rich underpainting. I wet the pigment with a brush and water. The sanded Pastel Premiere paper worked well with the water wash with no buckling.

The black and white underpainting

The pastels used for the demo: Terry Ludwig pastels with a couple of Diane Townsend Soft form pastels.

I love this particular scene and plan to make it into a series. I will see how many ways I can interpret this marsh and tree scene. I find one of the best ways to paint with more expression is to find a subject that you love and that you are intimately familiar with and paint it over and over. Your voice can't help but emerge!

Thanks for watching and sharing the video! I appreciate you all so much!!

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