New Sunday Studio Video Demo: Painting a Marsh

'Adventure Awaits'             11x14         pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $175

I'm back to my happy place! Painting every day without anywhere to go or to be. I will be home for the next few weeks and making the most of studio time. Today I had some time to do a new Facebook Live demo. I have uploaded the video to my Youtube channel so if you missed it live you can now watch it on You tube. Here is the link: 

https://youtu.be/HtIf0wxNkEU

In the video I paint one of my favorite marsh scenes from the South Carolina Lowcountry. I share tips for starting a painting using extremes and using a value thumbnail. I didn't add the finishing touches on the video but the photo at the top of the page shows the finish. Have a look at the photo below which is where I stopped. Can you see what I did to finish the painting?

Below are some photos of the painting in progress and my palette of pastels. You can see that I made a test paper of my color choices to see how I liked them. It saves me much aggravation and prevents mud by choosing colors in advance!

This photo shows the value thumbnail that I used to start the painting

New YouTube Video: Underpainting with Inktense Blocks

'December Fog'           8x10         pastel       ©Karen Margulis
available $145

I am continuing to play with wet underpaintings this weekend. I love how a wet underpainting helps me move away from my reference photo and allows me to interpret the scene with my own voice. Today I decided to do an alcohol wash using Derwent Inktense Blocks. These look like sticks of hard pastel but they are actually blocks of water soluble ink. You can use them wet or dry but they really shine when wet. They explode with rich color. In the fall I made a short video for my patreon page showing an alcohol wash with the intense blocks. You can now watch the demo on my YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/SS11aA6DI6Q

Derwent Inktense Blocks

Below you can see the start of the underpainting for today's foggy marsh painting . I liquified the intense with rubbing alcohol and a stiff brush. My goal was to allow some of the underpainting to show through and I was somewhat successful. I am not finished exploring this reference though and I plan to use it for a series of explorations.

Before wetting with rubbing alcohol

The underpainting once it has dried

If you would like to see the finished painting that was started in the video click here: http://kemstudios.blogspot.com/2017/10/do-you-want-explosion-of-color.html

Sunday Studio Time: Intimate Autumn Landscape Demo Youtube Video

'Maine Woods'           9x12         pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $145

I was so inspired that I had to get down into my studio to paint. The chores had to wait. Once I am home from a trip often life gets in the way of inspiration. This time I didn't let it! I threw in the laundry and immediately downloaded the photos from my New England and Canada cruise.

Once in the studio a printed put a few photos and pulled out my pastel palette for the intimate autumn landscape that begged to be painted. I thought it would be fun to paint live so we set up the iPhone to do a Facebook Live video of my painting. I had no idea how the painting would turn out but my goal was to show you how I respond to inspiration. Everything gets put on hold until I paint!

The small reference photo that inspired today's painting 

The photo above was my inspiration. You can watch the video demo here on my YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/T6Yn2gmLH7c

Click here to see the video on YouTube

We also filmed two more videos for my new Patreon page. I have over 200 patrons now who are enjoying the extra pastel and painting instruction and inspiration. If you haven't had a look at the Patreon page you can visit it here. www.patreon.com/karenmargulis

New Video Demo on Uart Dark Paper!

'Autumn Grace'            9x12         pastel        ©Karen Margulis
sold

I've been doing some house painting on the weekends. It hasn't left me with time to do a Sunday Studio Live demo. This week we made time! I decided to do my demo painting on the new Uart Dark paper since I have been playing with it all week. It was perfect for an autumn landscape!  The painting went through a transformation after the demo and I will share the finish in this post. You can see the entire demo on my Youtube channel. Here is the link:

Watch the video here

The planning board

Demos are interesting. I am trying to talk about what I am thinking. Sometimes I can't keep up with myself! And sometimes a painting needs me to step back and look at it....something I don't do during a demo especially one being filmed!  So as promised I took some time to evaluate the painting and made some changes. Below I will explain what I did to finish.

The demo where I left it at the end of the video

• The painting had potential but on review I felt that it had too much going on. The bright yellow tree competed with the busy foreground patches and grasses. Sometimes it isn't what you put in but what you take away! So I simplified the foreground with some big bold strokes and a little workable fixative.

Simplified foreground

• I needed to find a way to lead the viewer through the grass and shrubs to the big yellow tree. I had another photo of this location that showed a creek. That's what I wanted! A simple ribbon of blue water as a leading line. I put in some blue strokes and continued to add grass and shrubs forcing myself to keep it simple.
• I refined the trees with some brighter yellows and a few linear marks for tree trunks. Finished!

That was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed the video and the finish. Perhaps you would like to try a similar landscape?  I have exciting news coming tomorrow. Here is a sneak peak.....I have a new page on patreon.com which will allow me to share more in depth instruction, videos, handouts and more. Check it out at www.patreon.com/karenmargulis . I will be adding a step by step demo and much more to this page.

New Video Demo: The Magic of Painting on Black

'A Beautiful Secret'          11x14           pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $185

There is a story behind this painting. I shared it on my Facebook Live video Sunday afternoon and I will share it again in another blog post because it makes me smile! I had so much fun painting this live on Facebook. It is not a perfect video. We had some technical difficulties. But the information is there and if you'd like to see this painting develop you can see the video on my YouTube channel.

Link to the demo on YouTube:

 https://youtu.be/T15DgjmiTPk

The painting began with a plan. I changed the format of the photo and chose to do a landscape orientation. I did a black and white thumbnail to work out the composition.

My reference photo and my black and white thumbnail

I was interested in capturing the drama of the dark trees behind the flowers so I decided to do a black underpainting. I used an Art Graf carbon disc pigment black washed with water. I love these Art Graf squares!

An underpainting on Uart paper with Art Graf Carbon Disc wash

I got as far as the photo below in the video demo. I stopped at this point because the painting needed some thinking time before I could add the final touches.  It is very hard to explain how I make these final marks. I find I get lost in this part of a wildflower painting and I simply have to let go and let my hand take over. It is a lot of adding detail and taking some away....a lot of back and forth!

In an upcoming live demo I will JUST do a finish to a painting so that you can see that part of the painting process.  I hope you enjoy the demo!

The demo as I finished the live demo.More work needed.

The aftermath!

closeup

New You Tube Video Demo Neocolor II Underpainting

'Garden Party'         8x8           pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $145 click here to purchase

I've been having so much fun! Since I discovered the possibilities with underpaintings using Caran'Ache Neocolor II crayons I can't stop painting!  I decided that it would be a good topic for my Sunday Studio video demo. If you missed the live broadcast on Facebook you can watch the video on my Youtube channel. Be sure to subscribe so you can be notified whenever I add a new video! Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/IezryivPIts

The underpainting for the second painting on the right....Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons with water

 The Neocolor II crayons are actual a water soluble oil pastel. They explode with color when wet. If you have missed my two previous posts about using these crayons click here to read more.

 I hope you have enjoyed following along with my weekend fun with underpaintings. I can't wait until next week's Friday Fun!

my messy palette!

New Sunday Studio Video...Painting a Wildflower Meadow

'Among the Thistles'           12x24          pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $300

It was a great Mother's Day.  I got to do my favorite things.....poking around thrift stores and painting! I found some good art and travel books in the thrift store and got a chance to spend the afternoon in the studio. I decided to do a Facebook Live broadcast to share the development of today's painting 'Among the Thistles'.  You can see the video on my You Tube channel here:

                                                     https://youtu.be/UPL2gpyp5UI

Here are a few details of the painting to give you some background:

• I am using Uart paper 500 grit that I cut into a 12x24 piece. I taped the piece to a piece of foamcore. I wanted a long and narrow piece of paper to capture this little slice of a meadow.
• I did an alcohol wash underpainting with Derwent Inktense sticks and rubbing alcohol.
• I used Terry Ludwig pastels mostly the Richard McKinley landscape set.
• I used Blair Low odor workable fixative to build the layers of the grass.
• I added the bumblebees at the very end of the painting using just a few simple marks.

I hope you enjoy the video. It is unedited in a very informal format but just imagine you are a fly on the wall of my studio watching me paint!

close up detail

Sunday Studio Live Demo: Painting a Marsh and Playing with Color Schemes

'Changes'           12x18       pastel        ©Karen Margulis
available $165

I finally had a chance to do another Facebook Live demo painting. I had fun sharing my Color Recipe Worksheet and trying a Tertiary Triad color scheme. I put the unedited video on my Youtube channel so you can watch at your leisure.

Watch this painting from start to finish on Youtube. Click here for the link.

Here are a few photos of my planning steps before the painting. I explain all about them in the video.

The worksheet in action

testing the colors to see how I would use them

My palette.....Tertiary Triad of red-violet, yellow-orange and blue-green

Please share the video if you like it! And if you haven't tried the Color Recipe Worksheet here is the link. It is a 99 cent download. click here.

Sunday Studio Video: The Finishing Marks on a Large pastel Painting

'Southern Colors'         30x40       pastel      ©Karen Margulis     sold

 I was back on Facebook Live today with a new video. The topic of the day is 'Finishing a Painting.'  How do I  decide where to put the finishing marks and what they will be?  I answer these questions and more on the video. I show you how I finish this large marsh scene. The video is available on my Facebook page or on my YouTube channel.

As promised I am posting the progress photos of the painting as it developed.

6x8 color study available

Step One: The drawing with pencil

Step two: The underpainting: a layer of Mount Vision pastels rubbed in with pipe insulation foam

Step Three: reinforce the darks and start the sky. 

Step Four: Start at the back and work to the foreground

Step Five: All of the grass is blocked in with big simple marks

Step Six: Adding some details in the grass and the distant buildings...Before the final marks

On the easel waiting for the finishing marks.

How to Rescue a Failed Painting: Video Demo

'A Beautiful Tangle'          11x14       pastel      ©Karen Margulis
available $175

Another great question led to my latest Facebook live demo. I was asked for a recommendation for inexpensive sanded pastel paper. The reader was new to pastels and didn't feel like she was good enough for the pricier papers.  I know this is a common concern with artists new to pastels. They often want to wait until they are 'good enough' to use the good stuff.  Let me address this concern.

USE THE BEST MATERIALS YOU CAN AFFORD AND YOU WILL HAVE GREATER SUCCESS.

There is a reason for this. Good quality pastels and paper are a pleasure to work with and results will often be better than a struggle with inexpensive student grade supplies. Even when we are learning and not always having the greatest results the better papers are a better value because they can be REUSED and RECYCLED!

In my latest 'Sunday Studio' video I demonstrate how I recycled a piece of Uart paper. I used rubbing alcohol to turn a bad painting into an underpainting for a new start. If you don't use Facebook or missed the broadcast you can still see the video in it's raw unedited format on my YouTube channel here:

https://youtu.be/6DJTKUAtc9M

The pastels I used for today's paintings

Before I put away the pastels I used for the demo I decided to recycling another piece of Uart in the same way and paint another version of the wildflower seed heads. I hope you enjoy the video! 

'Another Tangle'       5x7        $75

my reference photo

Sunday Studio: Live Pastel Painting Demo Marsh Sunset

'The Magic Hour Returns'         8x10       pastel      ©Karen Margulis
sold

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 Facebook profile page here:

https://www.facebook.com/karen.margulis

I am also making the Sunday Studio videos available on my YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/rGMifRKG78k

I invite you to watch the video and like and comment. It makes it all worthwhile to know that someone is watching! I have enabled comments for everyone on FB in case you tried and were not successful!

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!!