Known for his use of luminous color, Albert Handell, whose lush landscapes light up these pages, provides lucid instructions to help first-time pastelists achieve impressive results as soon as they begin working with the medium. After reviewing pastel supplies, the author discusses landscape composition and how to establish large shapes first, abstract certain areas, develop a focal point, work from dark to light, and capture the illusion of reality through color. Stepped demonstrations isolate specific landscape aspects, showing how the pastelist depicts skies, trees, buildings, water, rocks, woods, snow, and light.
Introduces the tools, materials, and techniques of pastel drawing, and presents a series of demonstrations with photographs of the original scene for comparison
Capture the magic of nature in pastel. From the first ferns unfurling in spring to the flaming red foliage of fall and the snow-blanketed quiet of winter, master pastel artist and teacher Elizabeth Mowry offers both beginners and seasoned artists alike a fresh approach to creating light-filled landscape paintings. Using her decades of experience and gift for observation, Mowry infuses every page with time-tested pastel techniques to convey the distinctive mood, color and majesty of the natural world. You'll learn to translate the magic of what you see into what you paint through palette selection, use of materials, value and composition, blending your emotional response to nature's beauty with an ever-growing mastery of a pastelist's skill. This book is loosely based on previously published title The Pastelist's Year by Elizabeth Mowry with revamped content and 8 ALL-NEW demonstrations. Inside you'll find: The fundamentals of pastel. Detailed information about selecting materials, plus exercises and explanations of basic techniques for beginners. Additional master tips and secrets will push intermediate to advanced readers in their art. 20 step-by-step demonstrations. Capture the exciting ways nature changes and achieve the painterly effects that light up spring, summer, fall and winter landscapes. Plus learn how to artfully render difficult subjects like fog, bodies of water, reflections and clouds. How to keep a nature journal. Track the vivid impact of the seasons to add depth to your work and translate seasonal impressions into personal expressions. Learn how Mowry selects her subjects, color and mood, with additional information on field studies and reference photographs. The basics of composition. Learn how to establish a focal point, simplify your subject, portray distance and more to create a beautiful, balanced painting. A five-step method for critiquing your own work. Develop your personal style and achieve successful results with this time-proven exercise.
Paul Hardy shares the delights and beauty of working with a medium that is versatile, exciting and inspiring. This colourful, practical guide illustrates the techniques of applying pastel to a variety of paper surfaces, from field sketching and composing a painting to painting skies, trees, water and reflections. Step-by-step demonstrations show the reader how to paint a series of landscapes from a moody moorland pastoral scene to a gently flowing river, aglow with the warm colours of autumnal trees. The artist is rewarded as fields, trees and flowers spring to life when pastel is applied to paper.
Because nature is so expansive and complex, so varied in its range of light, landscape painters often have to look further and more deeply to find form and structure, value patterns, and an organized arrangement of shapes. In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light. Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest challenges for the landscape artist, such as: • Simplification and Massing: Learn to reduce nature's complexity by looking beneath the surface of a subject to discover the form's basic masses and shapes.• Color and Light: Explore color theory as it specifically applies to the landscape, and learn the various strategies painters use to capture the illusion of natural light.• Selection and Composition: Learn to select wisely from nature's vast panorama. Albala shows you the essential cues to look for and how to find the most promising subject from a world of possibilities. The lessons in Landscape Painting—based on observation rather than imitation and applicable to both plein air and studio practice—are accompanied by painting examples, demonstrations, photographs, and diagrams. Illustrations draw from the work of more than 40 contemporary artists and such masters of landscape painting as John Constable, Sanford Gifford, and Claude Monet. Based on Albala's 25 years of experience and the proven methods taught at his successful plein air workshops, this in-depth guide to all aspects of landscape painting is a must-have for anyone getting started in the genre, as well as more experienced practitioners who want to hone their skills or learn new perspectives.
"The Landscape Painter's Workbook takes a modern approach to the time-honored techniques and essential elements of landscape painting, from accomplished artist, veteran art instructor, and established author Mitchell Albala"--
Distinguished artist and teacher Alan Flattmann provides invaluable information about theory and technique as well as making crayons, designing proper studio lighting, and much more. Both amateur and professional artists will find this book informative and useful.Highlighted techniques include the painterly blended and the Impressionistic broken-color approaches. There are also illustrated discussions of concept and technique, mood and technique, mixed media, form and space, aerial perspective, modeling, and the importance of simplicity.
In this new addition to the Artist's Library series, talented master artist, Alain Picard, guides the reader through an exploration of this unique medium and its myriad uses. After an introduction to tools and materials, readers will learn how to use various pastel techniques, including hatching, crosshatching, and stippling, to create depth and dimension in their artwork. Readers will also find basic information on color theory and how to use color to elicit emotion, portray mood or time of day, and suggest depth and distance. Throughout the course of the book, aspiring pastel artists will learn how to use soft and hard pastels to achieve art that is bold and intense or delicate and soft. Easy step-by-step lessons cover a variety of subject matter, including landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. Artist tips and tricks demonstrate how to blend and layer colors and create reflection, shadow, and soft and hard edges. With its breadth of professional instruction and variety of subjects to paint, Mastering Pastel is the perfect resource to start building artist proficiency in this enthralling and versatile medium.
Top Secrets for Beautiful Pastel Paintings Richard McKinley has been a professional artist for over 35 years. Factor in nearly as many years of teaching experience, and that adds up to a whole lot of know-how to share. In Pastel Pointers, he lays it all out: information on tools, materials, color, composition, landscape elements, finishes and more. Compiles the best of McKinley's popular Pastel Pointers blog and Pastel Journal columns Covers frequently asked questions ("How do I achieve natural-looking greens?") and simple solutions to common problems, such as excess pigment buildup Includes a chapter on "The Business of Pastels"—tips for framing, shipping, preparing for gallery shows, and otherwise representing your work in a professional manner This book covers everything from the fundamentals to get you going (how to lay out your palette, create an underpainting, evoke luminous effects) to inspirations that will keep you growing (plein air painting, working in a series, keeping a painting journal). Whether you're a beginner or an experienced painter anxious to explore the expressive possibilities of pastel, this is your guide to making the most of the medium.
The Landscape Paintings of Richard McKinley invites you to experience the artist's life work and lessons learned. In this impressive yet intimate collection of 100 breathtaking pastel and oil landscape paintings, McKinley takes you along as he tackles his favorite subjects--the the vistas of the Pacific Northwest, the California coastline, fall in Taos, New Mexico, and many others--while sharing the anecdotes, techniques and feelings behind each work. This volume is, in essence, three books in one: A salute to the beauty of our earth. Scenes (many completed en plein air) range from McKinley's home state of Oregon, to the arid deserts of Arizona, to Minnesota's lakes and France's Provence region. The personal journey of one artist. His walks through the woods. His race with light. The people and places that have inspired him along the way. The landscape-painting workshop of a lifetime. It's packed with expert insights on everything from working on location and the importance of preparatory sketches, to using underpainting, capturing light effects, and knowing when to stop. A compelling read for artists and art-lovers alike, every page resonates with McKinley's love of his craft, lifetime of know-how and knack for helping other artists discover their own original views of the world.
