18x12 pastel portrait on charcoal paper

Amanda

Painted at Milwaukee Sketch Club 4/3/12.

Ended up talking quite a bit today rather than painting so didn't quite finish. I also re-drew the face once and the eyes 5 or 6 times. I have this great black eraser that erases pastel almost down to the paper, although sometimes I just wipe off the excess pastel with a cotton rag. I tend to use rags even for painting rather than paper towels.

The model asked me how I chose the colors I did and to tell you the truth I don't know. It's just that life and people are not just one color. She had very smooth skin so I blended the colors on her face. I like the headband.

24x18 Pastel Portrait on Vellum Bristol

Painted at Milwaukee Sketch Club 3/27/12. I always need to put down a rag to catch the pastel dust because I like to layer the colors.

Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolors

My cousin told me about pearlescent water colors in a pan so I looked all over until I found this pan of 16 from Michaels. Then I played around with them in my 8 x 5.5 Strathmore mixed media - vellum finish, visual journal.

The colors don't appear to be staining. Could lift them easily. The strathmore paper let me scrub and lift without apparent distress to the paper. However, the page did wrinkle/curl as I like to let the paint react with water rather than painting precisely, so if I decide to take pages of the journal will have to try maybe ironing them to flatten them.

I painted these pictures from my imagination/ memory. I like how the finished painting sparkles which doesn't show up when I scan the pictures. It was hard getting things dark enough.

9x12 Pastel Tree near Elegant Farmer, Mukwonago

Some sketches from France

When I was in Paris last week I carried around a 3.5x5.5" sketchbook and watercolor sketchbook along with mechanical pencil, prange watercolors (only 1 brush!), 3 watercolor pencils, white charcoal pencil, small spray bottle and water container. Next time bring another brush for a friend. This kit was light and worked very well although I almost wish the prange watercolor set would hold 2 brushes and was half as long so it would fit in my pocket better. Both sketch books fit in my pocket of my cargo pants.

Chaumonte

Almost filled up the sketch book with quick pencil and ink sketches while riding the metro, bus, train and waiting in line or outside shops for my cousin. Only managed 5 watercolor / watercolor pencil sketches. My favorite park was Chaumonte. I enjoyed riding the metro and the Batobus boat. Bercy Village was nice too. My cousin's daughter enjoyed using my prange watercolors and did some beautiful paintings too. My cousin left 2 sketches in my sketchbook.

Chaumonte

Louise Sq

Luxembourg Parc

Bercy Quai

Vernon Marsh Pen & Watercolor sketches 3/1/12

Purple/Yellow Flower from Water Color Class 2/29/12

The last 3 weeks in class we worked with complementary colors: red/green, orange/blue and yellow/purple. We blended the colors to find out the range of values that 2 colors could create. That would be fun to do with all the colors on my Prange watercolor set.