Monday, November 19, 2012

AAC Demonstration

Morning Radiance, pastel, 14x11
I had the wonderful opportunity this evening to do a pastel demonstration at the Atlanta Artists Center for a great group of enthusiastic artists. Although this was more of a generalized demonstration, I explained how I use color harmony and the use of neutrals to enhance my mostly green subject matter from my photo reference.

Morning Radiance was painted on mounted Uart paper with a monochromatic alcohol wash underpainting. In the underpainting stage, I focused on not only setting up the value structure for the painting, but simplifying the busy tree foliage into large, connected shapes. By contrasting the foreground and background with value and color temperature, I attempted to create a dramatic glow of light that was radiating from behind the thick foliage.

6 comments:

  1. Yes, Beautiful, gorgeous painting! I wish I could have watched you do this demo, Barbara, but I appreciate your explanation very much.

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  2. Thanks for the very encouraging comments!

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  3. Lovely work. I especially like those interesting sky areas between the branches.

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    1. Thanks, Diana! I enjoy using those little negative spaces with the sky peeking through to draw the viewer further into the painting.

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