 Hello my friends in Monet Cafe. This is artist Susan Jenkins, and I'm gonna be bringing you a little lesson today Using something we talked about in the last lesson on punching up color I'm gonna actually use the color wheel to pick my my palette for this little painting that I'm going to be doing We're gonna get a lot of learning in on this one, but I just thought I would say I'm so thankful that it's sunny today Where I live we've had so much rain and potential flooding since we live near a river But wow nothing like what was in Houston my heart and prayers just goes out to all of those people suffering from that tragedy I wanted to share to you really quickly. I've had some of you ask how to store pastels I do have a video on that, but I thought I'd share my other little Technique that I use just in the interim as I finish a pastel painting it's sometimes like okay I don't have time to get it Ready and put it in my little storage system where I have them like in bags and Just keep them stored this way with the cardboard. I've shared how to do this too This makes it really safe and easy for people to look at if you go to an art show If you ship them out, I can't get this back in here And it's just a neat neat little storage system. So but before I get to that stage I just temporarily put my pieces up here on a piece of Like a bulletin board like a cork board and what I do is I just have little Thumbtacks you can actually put them on the sides of your painting so that you actually don't have to put holes in them And it's just a really safe and easy way kind of like a holding Area for your artwork before you go to this So that was just a quick little art tip for some of you guys with storage But what we're going to do today is again work on the color wheel To choose a palette. I'm going to go grab a cup of coffee and we're going to get started on this fun lesson Yay. All right time to get started. I've got my essentials here including my coffee And I thought I'd just go ahead and show you a little bit I have a lot of people ask about how to choose a color palette And if you recall from my last video on punching up color, I don't think it was it was like two videos ago I talked a lot about the color wheel and how to use it the color wheel is your friend and we're going to use a Color palette today that utilizes this little section on the back of the color wheel that talks about a triad of colors I love things in threes like the Trinity just reflected all throughout nature boy I could do a whole lesson on that, but I'll stick to color and I'm going to choose and if you turn this color wheel You see how it changes, you know, which colors are in the little sections, but I'm going to pick a Color family or palette based on this triad With the purples or the blue violets. Okay, this is going to be a little bit more of a warmer blue. Okay So it's blue violets and if you go down from the little triangle you go over to here. We've got Greens, okay, these are more of a warmer green in here And then if you go to this side of the triangle, we've got our reds kind of orangey reds Okay, and I chose that because I noticed I got to pull up my photo here again I'll stick it up on the screen for you guys In my reference photo. I picked something that was a little bit. Blase Often I will pick a photo. It doesn't have to sing and dance as far as color And a certain other elements go but I just looked for a good composition and I love this composition I love compositions with depth and things that I can use to create that sense of illusion because that's what we are as artists We're really illusionist trying to create an illusion of making something look three-dimensional on a two-dimensional surface And there are so many neat little techniques that you can use to accomplish that and that's what I try to bring You guys as artists is ways to know. Oh, aha That's what happens if I put a cooler color and a lighter value in the distance. It makes it look far away It's like magic. Okay, it's very cool Not dark magic just illusionary magic And so what I've done here is I've used the little Triad of colors on the back triad triad and I've chosen these colors now I've got my my blue violets, okay, and I've got in here I've got a little bit more of the blues because I know I have some water in this scene in the foreground and But I've got my greens some warmer greens and a little bit of cooler greens for those things in the background And I've got my reds with some of these yellowies because I know I've got marsh grass and some of that Hop over there yellow get back over there some of that tops of the grasses Maybe I might even grab a little bit more orangey colors, too Okay, so I've got my little families and I've got them. Hi little families. I Have way too much fun with this and I've got them arranged as far as value Basically, okay. I've got my darkest to the back Moving towards my lighter values towards the fronts Okay And the reason that I do this is a painting is going to be very dull if you don't have Good values in them and a good range of values Okay, if I just did all middle values for everything in this painting is going to look very flat So you have to have your darker values for the foreground your lighter values for the background And that's really going to enhance that illusion of depth in your painting. Okay, so that was my reasoning behind it I may use this as a little bit of a harder pastel For some of the I'm going to do a quick little underpainting and I'm going to focus kind of on complementary Underpainting to start with so here we go with that. Yay All right I have my very simple reference photo up here To work from and I'm just going to kind of sketch in the basic landscape And then I'm going to start working on an underpainting for that and I did choose this photo from the The paint my photo app that I've talked about a lot a great great place to get reference photos and I like to this one because it had a nice a nice composition Utilizing that rule of thirds that we talk about so often and I want to try to keep this one really loose. I'm I'm doing this one today that is going to be part of a It's a little challenge that we have in our Facebook group It's I don't know who started it but it's called 30 in 30 you're to paint 30 paintings in 30 days and That is just one of the best ways that you can grow as an artist and Is just to get lots of practice and to do things fairly quickly So that's kind of my goal here today is to do kind of a quick painting my pencils not working But I do I do like this composition and like I said the photo It may look a little lackluster with color But it is it's just got a really nice composition and I happen to love marsh grasses I might need to get another pencil here I like how they they carve their way through through these this grasses and Also to right now what I'm seeing when I when I draw our sketch is I see shapes This is something I talked about in the last private lesson is try to avoid seeing what the thing is And see what the shape is okay because our brains want to sometimes see things and draw it the way We think it is rather than what that shape actually looks like Now right now. I'm kind of doing some measuring with my eyes. I'm seeing how far I sometimes often just look at the center point of the reference photo and then I judge everything on that So now I know the center and then you don't have to worry about the scale Okay, the center is right about here and the bottoms of those marsh grashes are below the center So my center is right about here and the bottom of these marsh grasses is going to be right about here Again pencil challenged here. Okay, so this is just kind of to make sure when I get going on the Underpainting I don't have to Focus so much I can just focus more on the values rather than the The drawing or where things are now I know these grasses were here and the other grasses are gonna kind of angle down this way and they're a little lower Okay, so that's kind of my reasoning and logic there and this is you art paper by the way I do love this paper But if you've been on my channel on you know I work with a lot of different surfaces and I make my own homemade surfaces sometimes But you are just a good a good paper You can wet it too, which is great. You can do it a watercolor underpainting You can do a thinned out oil painting. Actually, I haven't done one of those in my video But I need to okay, so you see now we've got a general composition. We've got our sky That's going to be absolutely the lightest value and that you can see right away We've got our background trees That are going to be very loose because they're far away. You can see in the reference image You know your brain knows their tree, but I don't have to draw any leaves on that you wouldn't see the leaves that far away Anyway, we've got our big marshy area. We've got this Waterway carving its way through there. I'm gonna leave out the house. I think that would be a distraction in this lovely scene So anyway, we've got our basics now the next thing I'm going to start looking at when we go on to a little It's going to be a combination underpainting Value study, okay, and the reason that I do that I'm going to do a complementary Underpainting which means it's just the opposites of the colors in the scene We've got a lot of greens in these grasses So the complements of green are going to be opposite on the color wheel They're going to be more like a red violet pinky red violet and and reds in general And that's going to create vibrancy in the painting to use those as an underpainting Some of that will kind of peek through but the next thing I'm doing is not just getting a Complementary nice color underneath is I'm beginning to focus on values the things we want to determine before we even start is first Where's your light source? Okay, it looks like the sun's going down behind these trees But actually I'm seeing the Sun right here here We go you see that right there and I'm seeing this we're going to have lights on these grasses Okay hitting the tops of these all right We're going to have shadow area behind these trees because the Sun's back here And we're going to have reflections on the water in here. You see the little reflection in here So there's our light source now. We want to focus on value Okay, a good way to do that is to squint your eyes. This photo is already so dark on my iPad I can kind of see where the lights and darks are easy peasy. This guy is the lightest Okay, we've got some light areas in these grasses back here is lighter Okay, the Sun's coming and it's hitting in here these actually usually you get warmer grasses in the foreground But these look a little cooler. It's like there's a shadow on this side Okay, warmer on the tops of these grasses Lighter value and of course we've got lighter values in the water the water is darker over here But we've got some pretty light values in here and a little bit of reflection of the light here Okay, so we've got a general idea of the values there and that's my focus in laying down the color So what I'm going to do now is I said I was going to use this this beautiful kind of pinkish Color it's not coming off very good on my newsprint. I'll use it if it'll behave That's a nice middle value. Okay, let me get a a lighter value Okay, I'm gonna keep this all in the warm Family, okay, there's a lighter. So I'm gonna work on three values right now. I've got my middle Let me see if I like this middle better. That's more of a red. This is more of a pink I think I'm gonna go with the red. Okay, and then I'm gonna go with a little bit of a darker value and I may do a purple That's pretty dark. I don't think I want that dark and I think I want to stay more in the reds Try this one. Yeah, there we go. Okay, so we're getting that That family of warmth going on here to do as an underpainting. So right now first, I'm gonna start on the dark Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and get in. I know these these trees in the background are dark And at this point, I'm just using the side of this pastel. This looks like it might have been a unison at one point And we want to keep a nice little Variety in the trees and how they grow. You don't want things to be samey samey I kind of got it right there the little samey samey thing. I don't like that I'm gonna make some adjustments in that when I carve out the sky so we want Not things looking Consistent we want a little inconsistency. That's the word I was looking for Yeah, I think I want to join those trees together There. Okay, there we go. That looks a little better. All these little things come in time too. So don't get frustrated or discouraged Just keep practicing now. I'm just getting in some of these values that are darker in this background Grasses where the water has carved it out. Now. I'm just using the edge of this pastel And you learn finesse with these as you work some of the challenge with pastels It was really just like brushwork or any medium you have to learn to manipulate the tool, you know and If you Haven't used it It's just like anything you've got to just get better at it same with pencil work and Um anything you're using really practice really does make perfect. So we do have to practice Okay, now I've got some of these these grasses here have darker values at the base and all of this is laying A foundation and I find that that's one of the things, you know here on this channel and in our facebook group Monet cafe the reason that I even called it. Monet cafe was a couple reasons is because I like a loose style and that is what many artists are trying to get to We have a tendency to want to start to draw every blade of grass And then you look at other people's work that have that loose down. They're like, how do they do that? And so that's one of the keys to laying down a good foundation a good loose foundation Is that it will create that painterly look that nice painterly look now. I've got some Um darks back in here too, not quite as dark. I might lighten them up a little bit or like you see I'm using a light touch right here. Okay. See that already doesn't look quite as dark with the light touch um, but back to the name Monet cafe um, another reason was not just because of the Um loose style the cafe part is because I love coffee Let me take a break, but that's not the only reason It's because I like the casual atmosphere of a cafe and people just joining together like friends to learn something So that's the reasoning behind my name Monet cafe and not just that it rhymes All right, so I've got some of my darks in now. I'm going to go ahead and start getting in My lighter values. This guy's actually going to be even lighter than that. I don't think I have a a lighter Paint though. Let me check this real quick Maybe this one's a little lighter. Actually, I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to use this little lavender I know the sky's going to be light Okay, so I'm just going to go ahead and get in this nice Lavender tone a lavender in a sky. It makes a nice um Value and color because um, it creates a mood of either early morning or late afternoon. Okay, so see how I'm just getting that in there And uh, it doesn't take much more than that now when I finally start getting the sky more I notice the sky's lighter on this side and a little darker in the atmosphere upper atmosphere there Okay, so there's my lightest light. I am going to have More light down here, but I don't want to add that just now I want to get my dark down first Okay And the only reason I did the light here is because that I can easily lay my other values on top of that They're not going to be a whole lot darker or lighter, but always try to focus on getting your dark values down first All right on that note Now I'm going to go on to my mid values and I'm squinting my eyes. Okay. We got that darker. You can see this is more of a middle value And I'm just going to start getting some of those in here And we're going to lay those green grasses on top of these Oh and the other thing too is after you determine your light source Then you want to determine your values Then you work on big shapes. Okay You focus on shapes like I was saying before rather than what the thing is and so that's all this is right now Is I'm working on those big shapes All right now We've got Our where's my middle value? I mean my lighter value. Here we go This value those other grasses in the back. Remember I said they were lighter That's why I'm using this little bit of a lighter here All right, and I am not going to do a water underpainting with this sometimes I will take it and I will Use alcohol or water And I'll literally paint this and I'm careful so that it doesn't bleed all over the place A little bit of running and bleeding is okay, but um, you don't want to do that everywhere But in this case, I'm just going to blend it a little bit with a piece of pipe foam insulation and now we know from a A beautiful artist friend of mine that we can also use um a pool noodle If you haven't been on my channel before you're probably right now thinking what the heck is she talking about So I'm I'm going to show you that in just a minute All right, and I'm using this lighter here because I can see in the water that this is indeed Lighter on this side. Okay All right, so we're getting our basic values in here All right, I'm going to add a little bit more of this one in here I'm going to punch this up a little bit in some places And directional strokes that's another thing I was just talking about with a student is um You give a sense of mood With it's almost like things are dancing. It's like nature is praising god is what I see And sometimes I think that's why it's good to paint to music is um You feel that energy and you almost feel where these grasses would be going and it's it's like a beautiful um nature symphony so that's One thing I like to try to accomplish in my work. Okay, so we're getting a pretty good idea for a value study in here um And I think that's looking good. Okay, so we don't need a whole lot more than that And then I'm going to take now. Let me grab my little pipe foam insulation And we're going to just blend it in the reason for blending is just to get a little softness to it Before I start laying down my other Values and colors now I'm starting I kind of cleaned this off. This is the pipe foam insulation I was talking about literally just buy it at a hardware store or use a piece of a pool noodle I think the pool noodle actually worked pretty good with my friend the other day. She showed it to me and um It mine's kind of dirty here. I'm looking for a spot. That's not so dirty That might be a little better I just keep a piece of newsprint behind my Whatever I'm working on so that I can just make little scratches clean off my pastels make little notes And uh, it's just handy for me. Okay, this is going to kind of get covered up anyway So we see that we just blended the sky in a little bit Now I think I'll go ahead and go with these middle values since it's kind of clean now Just blending these in a little bit Creating that little softness in here Oh, I love this brightness right there. That's just so pretty now You'll be able to see that this warmth underneath here is going to create Just a nice glow This water I see a direction of the water kind of moving like that. So I want to keep my strokes in that direction This is kind of flowing along here And again, I'm doing this as part of that 30 and 30 challenge 30 paintings in 30 days And so my goal is to focus on doing these rather quickly But I thought hey, why not make this a lesson for all of you at the same time? So I'm probably spending more time On this than I would on some of the ones that I'll do. Okay Now I'm going to get in and get those background trees. You see how that already softened up those grasses And we've got, you know, just a little bit of that feeling of what it is already with just that simple Little bit of what we've already got here. It's just Already looking like something. All right an idea of these marsh grasses. All right So there's our little value study with a complimentary underpainting And now not applying any water just blending it like that. We can get started laying down some of the final colors that we're going to use All right, now I'm going to put on some music and paint and do what I said, which is kind of feel The spirituality that you can feel when creating art. I think that's why so many people And our even our little facebook group for Monet cafe art group is such a success is because we're all enjoying The escape from some of the craziness in our world and some of the negativity and we feel that connection To our beautiful creation and our beautiful creator as we paint So I'm going to do just that I'm going to put on some music and paint I may add some commentary on top of this, but I hope you enjoy this process Okay, so in an attempt to not overwork this I am going to finish it up quickly and kind of leave it more as just a loose study like this I don't want it to be fussy or too detailed But I do need to do a couple of things. I wanted to point out The background trees I had to lighten them up with almost just like a gentle little wash of a lighter or like a light to middle value blue and It's softened those trees up and we have to remember trees in the distance are going to be blurry. They're We don't want the eye in the painting to be drawn to those background trees We just want them to enhance everything else. So that's why I I soften them up a little bit But I did have a question asked to me the other day about Sky holes, okay? A lot of times people will draw the individual limbs of trees or Leaves or bushes or whatever and It's so much better if we draw them in mass As a shape like I said before mostly I put in my values as a shape and then we carve them out later and Sometimes if we use the same value, this is the sky that I used here Down in the trees it ends up it looks too light It looks almost like it shows up too much It draws your eye to it too much because of the stark contrast Of the value difference between the darker blue and the lighter sky So it's usually a better idea to get a value That's a little darker This one might be a little too dark, but it's all I have here right now. I don't want to get up To do the carve out the sky holes in the trees So I've done a little bit of that here, but you can see that now when we put those in You don't want to get it up in the sky. I'll fix that in a minute They are more subtle your eye is not as drawn to Those marks in the trees as it would be If you had that really light value next to it So and especially down deep behind the trees and places too Usually the value is dark in a little bit So and it adds interest but again to not draw the eye Right to those sky holes Use a little bit of a darker value and you want to have some finesse with this You don't want to Have them look so consistent. I've got a little consistency going on here a little bit You want to vary it as nature does nature has beautiful Harmony but it has spontaneity too. So it's usually good to try to emulate that So I'm going to play around with these sky holes a little bit in an attempt. Sometimes I'll just touch them To make them a little bit softer not much We don't want to do a lot of blending with our fingers by any means So thanks for joining me in this little fun painting today And I hope you will come back soon. Please subscribe and feel free to comment And I just am so excited to bring you another video. Hopefully soon. Thanks guys. Bye