'Ending the Day with a Bang' 8x10 pastel ©Karen Margulis purchase painting $125 |
My terrible photo |
This was a bad photo. It's blurry and the colors are completely washed out. Good thing I was there and remembered what it looked and felt like. Now the fun begins. How to best express this scene. I liked the big shapes of the silhouetted trees so I decided to begin with an oil stain underpainting... Nice and wet and drippy! The perfect kind of underpainting when you don't have a good reference or don't want to copy your photo.
A wet underpainting allows us to respond with pastel in a more spontaneous way. We don't have to paint in the lines.
The oil stain underpainting |
The finished oil stain underpainting gave me big simple shapes and intense colors. It also gave me some interesting drips. I liked it. I knew I wouldn't have to do much with the pastel to keep this expressive mood that the underpainting created. It gave me the freedom to respond in a loose and expressive way....or as Richard McKinley says....The underpainting became my dance partner. I had fun dancing with this painting today.
Three cheers for spontaneity! Love the interpretation. Thanks for sharing the under painting and photo.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, what's an "oil stain" wet and drippy underpainting? I use watercolor or watersoluble crayons or watersoluble pencils--but what makes an "oil stain"?
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa!
ReplyDeleteGayle it is simply oil paint thinned to the consistency of tea with Odorless Mineral spirits (turpenoid) Paint like watercolor.