McCarty Park 6/11/15

A group of us has started painting again on Thursday mornings. Originally we planned to go to downtown Waukesha per Milwaukee Sketch Club Summer Plein Air Painting Guide but M called me and said the radar was showing heavy rain that was going to start there at 9am. Right when we were going. So he said, "How about Greenfield Park." I texted everyone and thought that McCarty Park might be a better option has it has a pavilion/boathouse with a very large overhang. So that's where we went.

When we arrived it started to rain lightly, a little more than a drizzle. The men who were getting the pool ready for summer had their truck under the overhang so they could access their tools and stay dry. A older man was fishing on the steps leading into the water and across the way I could see someone in a pink coat fishing under the trees.

9x12 oil pastel

At the last minute due to the rain I switched to oil pastels. I keep them in a tackle box sorted by lightness/darkness and color. The lightest ones are in the top drawer and the darkest ones are in the bottom. I use a lot of clear or white because I prep the Strathmore Acrylic linen canvas paper by rubbing in a layer of clear or white before I start. That's so I can scrape back to a lighter color if I need to. You can see where I taped the paper to my board. Usually that's cropped out if I decide to mat and frame it in a 11x14 frame.

9x12 oil pastel

After I've rubbed in the white with either my fingers then a rag. I take a light color and block in the shapes. Then I start layering. Sometimes I'll rub in a layer but mostly I scribble. I use a lot of browns and reds to tone down the greens. In the darker places I ended up using black since none of my colors were dark enough. I'll scrape back with a plastic card but on an angle to make a point to put back in highlights. The sky was a combination of light blue, gray, and white. I think I have 3 grades of Cray-pas from student to expressionist because that is the brand of oil pastels that I started with. The student grade has too much wax in it so doesn't lay down much color and is more transparent. I also have Van gogh, Sennelier, and Holbein oil pastels.

I started a second drawing of willow trees but didn't complete it. (It was time to go.) I needed to use white to milk over the greens and put in more darks. Also probably would have fixed hill and water edge once I sat there longer. Oil pastels are a little trickier than regular pastels but you can scrape and reapply them to fix an area.

The wildlife, frogs, ducks, and geese were quite noisy. There was also a heron. I think this picture might make a nice painting if you move things around a bit.

People were friendly yet respectful. A lot of people walking by. We teased them about putting them into our painting. This young boy fishing by us pulled out a lot fish but didn't keep them. A worker guy left the pavilion open so we could access the bathroom if we needed it and not use the porta potty. At the end several buses of kids pulled up but mostly played on the playground on the other side of the building.

A link to oil pastel society and oil pastel basics http://www.oilpastelsociety.com/oil-pastel-basics.html