 Hello and welcome to Monet Cafe. I'm artist Susan Jenkins. We're gonna have some fun today And if you're new here, please subscribe and hit that little bell icon to be notified of future videos This is part two of this night owl painting complete with fireflies I will have part one in the description section of this video now if you saw the last video And I highly recommend going back and watching that one You are aware that I'm trying to do a new format with a lot of real time so I am breaking them up into smaller more manageable teaching sessions and I think I know actually you guys have given me some good feedback on keeping a lot of real time So I'm gonna do a little recap here I'm working actually on a piece of watercolor paper and I love the fact that pastels can be used on multiple surfaces and I have so many videos that give recipes and Suggestions for how to save money and make your own pastel surfaces So this is a piece of watercolor paper where I have used a recipe that I came up with recently with clear Gesso and marble dust and so that is what has given the Surface of the watercolor paper enough grit for the pastel to hang on to I did do a watercolor underpainting For this painting and then I applied the coating over it to start applying the pastels once again Go back and watch part one if you're interested in that process now this was an owl that I did and I it was kind of one of those spontaneous moments I just kind of wanted to paint something and my husband was watching TV and I I found a beautiful owl and the rest of It's from my imagination and I realized wow I really enjoyed doing this So I'm giving you that as a heads up the next owl painting I'll show you a little picture of that cute little guy at the end of this video I did a much more in-depth tutorial with lots of instruction and I'm really gonna break that one down so it will be more of a step-by-step video and Hopefully easier than this one So this was kind of a precursor to the next one But I just I like to share what I'm working on with you guys because I know some of you're interested So now let me talk a little bit about what I'm doing Notice that in some areas I've covered most of the surface with the pastel but down in this area I'm working on with this tree branch I had the idea to have the branch kind of going forward into the painting creating depth and have this little mouse on it So so notice how the pastels that I'm applying right now. It still looks very textural You notice all that white space or light space still showing Between the pastel strokes that I'm making but I'm not worried about that at this point because I know that I'm going to do a little technique that I did to blend the areas to the left of my hand those dark trees and So I'm it's actually just a little piece of chamois cloth You'll see me use it later where I get my basic colors and values in and then I go in and blend it And the reason I do that is One to I don't always do that sometimes I like the texture of the paper showing through in certain artwork But this was a very dark scene in general. It's nighttime So I know that the majority of my surface is going to be a darker value much darker than the light areas that you see to The right there now. I'm using the same brownish kind of Color of a pastel that I used on the main trunk there to get just a little bit of it on those trees That I'm working on right there The reason I'm doing that I don't want to overdo it is because I'm keeping the light source in mind The same thing happens with a night painting as you do with a day painting You consider the light source and it's really going to affect all the values and colors that the light source affects So I know that the moon is going to affect the areas kind of straight down from it and radiating out from it But it's not going to get so much down into the depths of those trees to the lower left So they're going to stay much darker now I also have to consider when it's nighttime and there's not a lot of sunlight We just have a moon glow things are going to blue out. They're not going to be as warm So that's why I don't want the tree trunk even though this is the one that's kind of in the direct path of the moon I don't want it to be so warm in color temperature Now if you've seen my video five ways to increase depth in your artwork That is a great one for Especially if you want to do things out of your imagination like I'm doing here I'm just basically using those rules. I know that it's a cooler type of light I know there's not a lot of sunlight So I've just got to cool the temperature off and even though I know Like I shared in the last video Typically color temperature is warmer in the foreground and gets cooler in the distance In this case, yes, it will be a little bit warmer on that closest tree trunk under the mouse But it's still going to be cooler overall because it's nighttime. So that's why I'm using this really Neutral pretty blue right here and my colors at this point If you saw the final at the final painting at the beginning of the video it did have much more vibrancy But right now I'm keeping it Very neutral and darker in value and once again, I'm working from my imagination. So I'm kind of like going Does this work? Is this what I want? And the way I'm doing the tree branches Again, if I don't have a source to work from which I didn't hear I'm using basically the When you when you paint a lot you kind of understand how trees work I'm not saying I'm an expert at it But I've I've done enough to know kind of how the branches Go and also if you're familiar with the Fibonacci sequence There is a pattern to how trees grow and branches Extend from the trees. There's a a mathematical sequence and while that might sound like oh math art I don't want to do math. I'm I'm I'm an artist It's not that hard once you learn the rules and I do have another video on that It's called the golden ratio and the grand design I believe and it really goes into a lot about the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence And how it's just so beautiful in nature and how as artists we can embrace it And use it to our advantage when we're painting and I know a lot of times we're not painting from imagination But uh, there are oftentimes when you may want to alter a reference image You don't like where this tree is leaning and you might want to remove it Or you might want to add a branch here or there And so learning these things is only going to make you a better artist plus I just think it's interesting. I think it's so cool this order and beauty that we have that just creates such Natural harmony in our world. All right. So once again, I am just kind of really wanting those trees down there I I even blend them even more and darken them even more because what I'm trying to do Oh, goodness. I have another video. I'm gonna solicit here. I think it's five ways Uh five techniques for focal point or something like that. What I'm trying to do is what would you say is the focal point to this painting? It's that owl, right? So if I give too much intricacy and detail to the trees that I'm working on now It's going to dramatically pull away the focus of the owl, which is what I I want the focus to be on is the owl So even though, you know, you see me working kind of strategically here I'm even going to dull this out even more and give just enough interest with color and value to suggest That there are trees receding into the distance We don't need all of the information there when we are Painting and I think early on I didn't realize this. I remember I was I had okay drawing skills I you know, I was doing all right, but I didn't really understand these strategies that you can use when painting in creating interests where you want it to be and dulling or neutralizing or Taking the focus away from other areas and I remember I did this one painting of a tree And I think I must have painted every single leaf on that tree And I I felt so proud of it when I was done And then it was later that I realized, you know, it's There's too much information here. What's that TMI expression that they used? And so don't let your painting suffer from TMI too much information We need to choose what it is that is the The thing that attracts you to what made you want to paint it and in this case it was this owl and and also the beautiful Backlighting behind his wings and if I was to paint so much detail in other areas It would distract or take away from the Main point of the painting, which is the owl. So that's why other things are very subdued nothing when it comes to the leaves and things You see me using now. I'm using a warmer Color, which is a green and I'm going a little darker in Those trees that I'm working on right there because they're they're in a darker area They're not directly under the moon. There's lots of other foliage back there So I'm limiting the warmth and keeping the value a little bit darker But in the part that I did like behind the mouse that those Greens are going to be a little bit warmer because of the moonlight Being more in a direct path to the moonlight. So you're going to get more warmth You're going to get lighter values Near your source of light and plus it worked in my favor because the mouse is also too kind of a focal point Now when it comes to like some of the things i'm doing now with the greens and making the leaves Once again, remember what I said before about just suggesting things And again, it's amazing what our brains will put together as believable without much information Now i'm adding a little bit of those greens back in there I don't need to really Spell out so to speak Every branch and tree back there because again your your brain's going to go to the owl and then it's going to play around And actually when we can learn to paint in a way That is actually the same way our eyes work our perception works Because typically if we're looking at something if this was a real life scene and you look at this owl Your peripheral vision isn't really focused on the things around it It's like a halo where things get gradually less focused as they extend out from your Your focus what your eyes are focused on so that's why the things gradually just get a little blurrier around the edges and I often say this photography It sounds like a strong statement photography lies And I don't want to say it lies it captures too much information It suffers from tmi because often unless you adjust your settings on your camera A lot of the automatic settings are set to make focus of everything That's not how we see we see the way I was mentioning before where we center in on a focal point And then a little bit of blurring for our peripheral vision So when we can learn to paint the way we actually see we're going to have More beautiful artwork and I think more painterly and interesting artwork. All right now I'm using some purples here because purples are great for Shadows and for cooling things off and once again, this is a night painting and things in the shadows are going to be cooler In color temperature. We don't have the warmth of the sunlight We've just got a little bit of a moon glow and thus we'll stay more on that cool side of the color wheel grains are going to lend themselves to be more teal And reds are going to lend more towards violets and purples. That's why in those trees To the lower left. I have I have purples and more violets for what would in the daytime Be browns, you know in reds and golds And so, you know, that's an interesting strategy You can take if especially again if you're working from imagination or if you're altering a photo You're taking a daytime photo and you want to change the color palette or the mood These rules just work so well and they're really not all that hard Once you learn some little tips and tricks of the color wheel and how things really work in nature You can get so exploratory and creative with your artwork the recent homework assignment I had for my patrons on my patreon page was every friday. I have a pe lesson It's called patron education pe lesson and I have them do a little Something to kind of hopefully give them some more education artistically and stretch them artistically And then they do the lesson and they submit it to a homework album that we have I love that. I love going and seeing their homework that they submit. Oh by the way, if you'd like to become a patron It's only five dollars a month. It supports this channel. So I can keep free videos coming Helps me have better equipment all kinds of things and also you get a little bit of extra instruction and kind of become Part of my patreon community. Um, but anyway back to the lesson last friday's lesson we did Where I I gave them a painting demonstration, but I Had them paint from black and white photos. I provided them So they didn't see the actual color photo and they had to use these rules Like I was saying with the color wheel and values how values work And I got such great feedback from that one lesson from my patrons They really liked it and they felt like they learned a lot and learned that they can Reinterpret photos if they want and it and some of them even said I'm going to do this more in the future Where you convert your photo to black and white and just work from the black and white photo So, uh, so that's really neat now I'm working on the little mouse here and I often get asked if I use pastel pencils much And I don't now I am going to use a pastel pencil for some parts of this mouse in a minute But I often find that even with these chunky pastels I can find a little edge or a little corner And when you to me when I do that I I like more impressionism And I think it lends itself to impressionistic artwork more When you use the pastels versus the pencils, but there are times when something is so teeny like when I had to kind of Reestablish those owls claws that was back in part one of this Um, but anyway, and I apologize The pastel's so big and the mouse is so little you can't really see as much of what I'm doing here But my strategy here is to get in the values. I know the mouse is going to be kind of a brownish Or grayish mouth mouse and I do gray him out a little after this But um, I'm just getting in the basics right now So I'm just using my little corners and I'm I know that because the moonlight is from behind And up high he's going to have lighter values on top and darker values underneath now. He did have a little white belly And While you may have you'll see me in a minute. What color would I use to paint a white belly on this mouse? So I'll leave that as um suspense until I get to it. Now. I was working on The little shadows in his ears And I think trying to establish his eye And in a minute I actually go to a pastel pencil to kind of reestablish that that was just his eye And so this was kind of painstaking tedious work um, I do make um A little bit of this uh darker kind of a brownish magenta color And what i'm having to do here once again working from imagination is just use the rules that I know That's how they work in nature And it's so neat as artists that we're we're not reinventing the wheel with a lot of things We're just using what laws of physics are really there in our world I skipped ahead just a bit because there's a lot that you can't really see in this Okay, so now see this color that I got the little lavender Now that's the color underneath his little belly that i'm going to use to represent the white Why would I use lavender instead of white? Well And now i'm using a darker purple to create a little bit more of a shadow underneath him and kind of ground him onto that tree He needs to have a little shadow a little darker area Um, so that purple really works well for shadow, but back to my question Why would I use a purple or lavender instead of white? In considering his environment, he's in a darker environment White's not going to show up great except for this owl with his wings because the moon is just shining right through his wings And the little white on his belly. It's on the underside of his belly So it wouldn't be natural or normal for that white to appear that way And I know our brains play tricks on us sometimes Often we can as a beginner artist we Our brains will tell us something is white and that's what we'll do We'll just go grab white and if we actually really analyze the photo or the subject matter Um, we'll discover that wow things are not the same color or value That our brains initially tell us I learned this from working in photoshop with my graphic design background And I realized when I had to do some adjustments to photographs I would use a tool. It's called a color picker and I would grab a color That I needed to use in another area and I would often be like wow I had no idea like people's teeth for example. Um, they You would think you would just paint them white But if you've done any portrait work, you know that usually even if someone's smiling Their upper lip is creating a shadow over their teeth and usually teeth. They're not Really all that white so we need to learn to analyze and pay attention to what we're painting rather than Making assumptions is probably the best way I can put it. I want to say don't let your brain get in the way but it's really our brain often tells us to assume something and Often it's not really the way it appears in nature. All right, so still working on this little mouse You can see I'm adding um his little feet I was just thinking of him having like a little pink nose and little pink feet and once again, this is kind of a warm color Which is not Really something in this scene that would have a lot of intensity But I'm I'm kind of using a little artistic license just to make him cuter here And here's where I'm using a pastel pencil. It's kind of a dark dark purple. It looks black but it's really like a dark purple and Just because he was so small and there were some areas that I just couldn't find the right corner of the pastel I wanted to give him a little bit more detail and darken up some areas underneath for shadows and um and just kind of Use it to get the values darker in certain areas I did work on the mouse a little bit more after this but not a lot like I said I just darken the values, but I wanted to show you another little blending tool That you can use pan pastels and unfortunately, I haven't done a lot of videos on pan pastels, but I do like them They have some neat tools their pan pastels are literally Little pans of pastels like they almost look like a makeup compact like you have powder in And you have all these neat little tools for blending and applying them actually really like a paintbrush application And again because this mouse was so little my chamois cloth I would have had a little bit of a hard time Getting kind of in those little areas in between his feet and under his tail But notice that I'm using it kind of to blend in some of the Take the white out or the lighter values and Give a more smooth application Once again, there wouldn't be a lot of this white showing even though sometimes I do like the texture showing like this So um, I'm also just kind of using it You see me mark on the side to the right there when I'm using a dark value And I don't want it to get onto a lighter value. I'll just it's almost like cleaning it off a little bit But I do add now that I'm still just kind of in this blending mode with this tree trying to create that sense of depth Obviously one of the things that creates depth as you know, it'd be larger in the foreground Which it is and it gradually recedes due to the laws of perspective But I'm uh I'm blending now, but I do go back and add a little bit more detail To that before the painting is done Now in this next part is where I'm doing my little technique for adding the fireflies and In this video once again, I apologize not as much of my filming took place as in The next owl video I'm going to share with the cute little owl with the big eyes So in that video, I am going to do real time zooming in showing you my little firefly technique And again, this was just kind of an overview and I didn't capture every single bit of footage here So you'll see this technique in the next owl tutorial And now I wanted to zoom in because I'm uh getting back to those background trees again I'm doing what's called negative painting and it's similar to a video. I did not too long ago on what's called sky holes It's really you're carving into your trees rather than drawing the limbs and branches Now I have sped this up at this last portion of the video, but thus far It's been about 20 plus minutes of real time So that's what I'm trying to give you guys more again breaking the videos up to make them more manageable for uploads And then I will combine them all together in a playlist so that you can see the whole series of painting videos in one session if you would like So once again, this is part two. I will combine it in a playlist with part one And now I'm using a new pastel spelled in you pastel not any w made by prismacolor These are great harder pastels and they're better for like linear work Now remember the areas I was saying that you don't have to focus on drawing every leaf just some shapes and values Now I'm just going in and giving a bit more suggestion With some purples that are showing more shadowy areas behind some of the the groupings of leaves adding some of that purple in the branch that the mouse is on and also in the mouse And giving a little bit more color where the light of the moon is shining because that's how it would really work in nature Another neat thing to do is start examining nature start I found that when I started painting seriously I started seeing the world with new eyes. Has that ever happened to any of you guys? You're you're like wow I'm observing things so much more. I just love the artist spirit of how we are Really appreciating our world and our earth and god's creation and nature so much more than Probably none artists do So anyway, that's I just think that's a neat thing about being an artist I do apologize that I get didn't get as much footage of the actual part of the owl painting I am adding a little bit of purples and blues once again his face and his Body underneath side are really on the away side from the moon So they're going to be cooler and have more shadows And I chose to use like some purples like even under his feet there And some cool like minty greens even though the bodies of the the body of the owl is white That part that's under his head if I painted it white it wouldn't be true to the laws of Color and value. That's just not how it works So that's why I gave him more of that minty greenish bluish color on his underside And once again, I apologize I didn't get as much owl footage on this one, but the next video I've got it from start to finish So and by the way, I'm finishing this one up here I'll show you the final and this painting is available in my etsy shop along with the next owl painting I'll do I'm trying to provide my paintings in my etsy shop as soon as I finish the video So here's the final. I hope you enjoyed this get ready for this next cute little owl tutorial coming soon And of course happy painting