Wednesday AM - Day 3 - McKinley Workshop

We got to start painting at 9am, with the morning light.  I took a photo of my scene (long shadows and light halos on the willow and brush tops) but by the time I set up, did my value sketch, and did the watercolor underpainting, the sun had rose and the halo look was gone.  Hmmmm.  I forgot what it looked like, forgot what color it was.  My painting came out weaker than I had planned, but I felt I was getting better at the underpainting part of it.  And, this was the first time I tried a square format.

Here is the underpainting:

Here are some basic tips I got for this:  While applying pastel over the underpainting, I need to move incrementally, and occasionally take a paper towel (or piece of pipe foam) and drag one little area of pastel down and over the watercolor - to help the eye move from pastel to watercolor.  It helps with an interesting transition from defined to undefined (fuzzy), or texture to soft watercolor.  This technique also helps to soften dark edges or contrasts at the edge of the painting where they eye would be lead out of the painting (see the dark lower evergreen tree at the right side of the underpainting.