Ponting Workshop

I have been waiting patiently for the end of October, not for Halloween but for a Dianna Ponting workshop in Nanaimo over on Vancouver Island. I headed over on Friday evening so I could wake up and be fresh at the start of the session instead of rushing to get an early ferry over and stressing over the time schedule. The plan worked well. Saturday morning came and I arrived with time to spare, set up my easel and laid out everything I was going to need. Believe it or not the first thing we were shown was how to tape your pastel paper to the support board. "Ingenious" was the first thought that came to mind. The secret? Since sanded paper doesn't hold tape too well, she demonstrated that you should place a piece of tape on the back side of the paper overlapping the edge 50:50. Do this for both the top and bottom edges. Now flip your paper over so the sanded surface is up and lay it in position on your board. Now apply tape to the exposed overlapping tape and the board. Not only is your paper secure, but you can paint right to the edge of the paper with no border!! After all this it was revealed to us what our demo piece was going to be… a salt shaker, an egg in a cup and a spoon placed upon a checkered tea towel that overhand the edge of a table. (Sorry for the bad picture)

Great piece now that I think of it, as it has a simple background, glass, reflections, subtle tones, a subtle colour reflecting (on the egg and spoon) and a patterned fabric.

We started by transferring the drawing onto the sanded paper by chalking the back of the sketch (done a a different piece of paper) and tracing over the front of the sketch.

Next we moved to the background by laying in three different colours, a light blue, a dark blue and a black. I have never seen someone put so much pastel on before. It really opened my eyes on how much is needed to really fill in an area.

The three colours were blended together, trying to keep the silhouette of the objects untouched. If we did happen to get pastel into the silhouette we carefully erased as much as we could without disturbing the background.

 

As you can see, my dark blue was eaten by the black. :) Lesson learnt.

Moving onto the salt shaker was exciting as it was my first time attempting glass. During her demo all I could think was, "Oh, how easy is that." And really, it is.

The egg and cup were next with the subtle gradations and reflecting deep orange colour. Surprisingly, it provided more of a challenge than the salt shaker did. Dianna came over and used her magic finger to blend the bright left edge and the dark core together to alleviated a stark edge I had. She was also able to touch up the shape of the egg as I had widened it a little to much.

That was it for the Saturday portion of the workshop… Phew, my mind was tired.

Sunday we dove right into it, finished the egg, cup and added in the spoon. The spoon was the easiest of all the element. Chrome was the easiest element to do – just black and white.

As you can see in the image below it was time to tackle the checkered cloth. Dianna demonstrated the cloth in one fell swoop with all of us eagerly watching and reviewing. It took her a full hour to finish most of the cloth, but it felt like only 10 minutes. After we all went to our perspective easels and got to work. My initial result is below.

My intention with the cloth was to use it as an experience so I completed it in earnest as I wanted to move onto a study of a candy apple that I brought.

The finished piece is below and for all intended purposes I think it turned out well. Sure, if I did it again I would do a few things different, but you know, I am ready to move on and learn more from a new painting experience.

The following are detail, close up shots of Dianna's finished work. Something to aspire to.

And finally, her completed painting…

Pastels in the Mail

I had a nice surprise this week. My order of Unison Pastels came in the mail. Always a good day when a package arrives. The sticks are soft and silky but do not melt like butter like a Schminke. The colours are brilliant and vibrant, apply well and smudge nicely. I look forward to completing a painting with them.

Candy Apple Series

I previously talked about painting a candy apple at the upcoming Dianna Ponting workshop I will be taking in October. I did some more photography of the subject and will be doing a series once I get started. The first of the series will be one of these photographs.

   

 

   

Turner’s Slave Ship

 

Not exactly a pastel painting, this piece was an instant favourite to me because it brought to light a subject that was not considered appropriate in his day and age. Bold, blunt and full of expression, it tells nothing but the truth. One can not hide from it nor should one ignore it.

Book Review – Harley Brown’s Inspiration for Every Artist

After waiting for two weeks this book finally came in the mail. Greedily getting the package in my hands I eagerly opened the parcel. Pulling the book out I noticed the cover is exactly the same as I saw on the International Artist web site. I was hoping for something with a little more flare. Finally getting the book clear of the packaging I cracked it open and my first thoughts were "Oh, it's just numbered paragraphs of insight. "Hmm, disappointing". To be honest I was hoping for more of the same style as his last book. This one, however, is 401 numbered paragraphs of insight and inspiration along with the occasional cliche. "Ok", I thought. Lets read it before I make a final judgement on it." So far I am up to about point 120 along with breezing ahead a few pages to read over the development of his self portrait and skipping to the back to read over "50 things you must know before you conduct or take your next art workshop". At this point I am still neutral. You can tell there is a lot of experience that went into this book. Let me finish reading it before I continue with the review.

– 2 Days Later –

I have made it through the entire book now. Somewhat exhausted. I found reading everything in point form took it's toll on me over the last two days. Near the end I found the insight less informative and useful than the beginning 2/3rds of the book.

What I did find great were all the little anecdotes on each page below sample sketches or paintings. For me this provided a basis for his words instead of just having text on a page. When I do go back to this book I can see myself skimming through, just reading these side tidbits instead of the entire book.

If you are an artist looking for an insight into your craft I would suggest his first book "Harley Brown's Eternal Truths For Every Artist". That book is so chalked full of great and useful information. It is hard to come by these days though.

In the end, I have no regrets buying the book as it was under $30. If I had paid more, I would be upset. I think I will refer back to the book at a later date but for right now I will have to put it on my bookshelf instead of by my easel.