 Welcome to Monet Café. In today's pastel painting tutorial, I will unveil my technique in three steps to create shadows that transcend reality, infusing your landscape artwork with drama and mesmerizing color. Let's jump right in and talk about these products. For this painting I'm using a professional sanded pastel paper. It's called Pastel Premier. I really do like this paper. I've been using it a decent amount lately. It is water friendly, but as I always say, use whatever you have. Now I like the fact that I can get this paper in white. The reason is because sometimes I want to make my own underpainting, a lot of times actually, and in this case I wanted to create something vibrant. And to do that, I will be using the Neo Color 2 water soluble wax pastels. I've used these in many tutorials. I love them. They look like coloring crayons, but when you wet them, they just explode with color. And they're a lot of fun, but you could totally use soft pastels for the first stage of this painting. You could use similar colors to the ones you'll see me using in the underpainting. And if you're using a water friendly surface, you can wet them. Soft pastels will work similar to these Neo Color 2 water soluble wax pastels. That's a mouthful. So I'm just looking at some of my colors, but I'm going to get down a really nice warm underpainting. So I'm going to be choosing some reds and oranges. The reference image is from pmp-art.com, a gorgeous scene of some trees with these long shadows. These trees are backlit, so the sunlight is coming from behind, casting these beautiful shadows and highlights in the grasses. Before beginning this painting, I did a preliminary value study. It's also called a notan, and I like doing these before beginning a painting because it helps to work out compositional elements and really fine tunes your focal point. If you're a patron of mine, you have this extra footage where I go over my little system for creating these, and you actually get the footage of me creating the notan for this particular painting. If you'd like to become a patron, it's not hard. It's only $5 a month, and you can cancel at any time, and you get all the extra art goodies, and you become part of my Patreon family and support this channel. It's a lot of fun. But there's plenty of free content here on Monet Café as well. Now I'm ready to get started with this underpainting. These are some of the warm tones that I have chosen. Kind of some red colors and a little bit of an orange. And I do use a yellow. I'm beginning first with the red. Now this is what I would call step one. Remember I said this is a three-step process for painting shadows. Before we delve into the depths of shadows, we need to lay a foundation upon which these shadows will dance and play. And this underpainting process is going to help craft a colorful base that will breathe life into your painting. And so I begin with these warm undertones of reds and oranges, and they are going to create this foundation for a symphony of color when I go to add the cooler tones and values for the shadows. Another reason it's a good idea to lay down this foundation of warmth is because landscape paintings, especially grasses and grassy scenes, think about what lies beneath the earth, the grass. It's earth. It's ground. And often the ground has warmer tones. Also, when there's any painting with a lot of green, it's a great idea to lay down a warm base because it's a complementary color. So not only is it good for just a compliment to green paintings like I talk about all the time, but as you see here, it's going to make a great foundation for these cool shadows that I'll be adding soon. So in the shadows, the red is the darkest shadows. The orange is the middle ground. The yellow is the little trail. But what would you say is the darkest thing in this reference image? Well, it's the trees, the trunks of the trees. I often talk about how vertical things are typically the darkest thing in landscape. So I'm right now just focusing on the shadow portion of this. I will be focusing on the trees in a minute. And right now this may look pretty lackluster. And if you're, you know, at this point thinking, what is she doing and about to tune out or turn off this video? Don't do it because the magic is about to happen. It really is when we add water to these neocolor wax pastels. I'm also adding some of these orangey tones to the background trees. If you look at the reference image, the background trees are not nearly as dark as say, for example, the foreground shadows. So I'm using my lighter value, the orange, which is lighter than the darker red I have down. And I'm just carving them into some of these tree shapes. And it's going to be fine because I'm going to let everything drip and run and get very loose. For a painting this size, I will always like to use the largest brush I possibly can when doing something like this. It's going to keep things very loose. I like this Neptune brush made by Princeton. I think it's called a quill brush. I've been using it some lately. But use again, whatever, any old cheap brush will work. Some water, of course, and some paper towels. And if you choose to apply pastels rather than these neocolor two product, you can do the same thing as long as you're using a water friendly surface. I'm speeding this up quite a bit because we do actually have to get through this video and get to the painting process. But I am just loosely adding water. Often I will start from the top, especially if I'm working upright like this because, you know, with gravity, the water will cause these nice drips and things to drip down. So with that in mind, I probably would have now I would redo it and if I did it again, I would paint some of that warm color over the tree trunks, you know, I'm going to be covering them up with something darker anyway. I didn't have to isolate them. I didn't want to lose my, I think I use charcoal to get the little sketch in and I was kind of being careful with my sketch because it was rubbing off with the water. See, look at this. It's crazy and loose. You know, I think sometimes I might lose people in my videos when I start out with craziness like this, but it really does add life to your painting. So that was step one as crazy as it sounds to add something warm underneath your shadows. It's really going to make it have more pizzazz and color interest. Now is when I'm going to start adding some of the darkest values, which are those trees, obviously the trunks of the trees. And that one tree actually got a little short. I stretch it out later. But in hindsight, I'm going to tell you what I would not do again. I already mentioned that I would probably just cover all of the tree trunks with the, maybe the orange color. But right now I'm using neocolor wax pastels again. And in hindsight, I would have just preferred to go right to pastel at this point. The reason is because neocolor wax pastels when you wet them are similar to like watercolor is they'll kind of reignite and they'll move around. And so the color when I add water to these tree trunks, it gets a little muddied. And so that's the reason why, you know, I'm telling you to do as I say, not as I do here. I think it would be better just to start with the pastels for the tree trunks. You're going to see in just a minute how it all kind of bleeds and blends still worked out fine. I love loose beginnings anyway. So, you know, there was no harm done, but that's just a lesson learned for the future. I'm really going to speed this up now because you get the idea. So I'm adding this kind of dark blue with the neocolor to water soluble wax pastels. And I'm going to add water. I'm just getting in my darks. These are my darkest values. I even add some of this neocolor darker pastel to some of the shadowy areas in the foreground. And this is really part of stage two. You're really going to see me start developing stage two when I get to pastels. But again, stage one is getting down some earth and warmth. Stage two is getting down some cool. Okay, so you start with warm, literally like dirt you would plant grass in. And then we move to cooler shadowy colors. This is where I'm just wetting the trunks of the tree and look how dark that kind of dark blue neocolor to wax pastel gets when you add water to it. So there's my trees and now I'm going to wet the area that I told you I laid down some of the blue colors in the shadowy parts. And you can see here how it muddied the other color. Again, I wasn't thinking about how the orange and the other colors would would blend with the blues. So again, in hindsight, I would have done this part with pastel and that's what I'm going to do right now. These are some of the pastels that I'll be using for some of my shadow colors. And I will give you some color notes along with this video tutorial. And so I'm choosing some really nice blue, blue, green colors and some purple colors. So this is stage two, even though I got down some of the cool color already with the neocolor pastels. These are some of my grassy colors and adding these cool shadow colors. Once again, to reiterate is what I'm calling step two. We got down the earthy color and now we're going to add our shadow cool temperature colors. This blue turquoise type of color is actually the color that I'm using for some of my middle value shadows. They're not the darkest shadows. And fortunately, shadows behave like other elements when it comes to value and perspective. And what I mean by that is a shadow further away will be a little bit lighter in value than a shadow close up. So you'll see me gradually grab a darker pastel to start creating these foreground shadows. They're going to be a little bit darker. There you go. You see there? So I got down that little bit of a cooler, lighter value blue for some of the shadowy areas in the distance. And now I'm using this darker value kind of a neutral blue here to develop the shadows that are closer. If you squint your eyes really tightly and you look at the reference image, you can see the shadows that are from that far distant tree coming out from it and towards the viewer. Those are some of your darkest shadows. But the shadows that are kind of behind that second tree are a little bit lighter. I tapped my painting there because I was just pointing out my paper got a little bit ripply. And I'm kind of heavy handed with the water. So sometimes that will happen. Usually it flattens out but was kind of working against some of the bowing of the paper. So again, the darker shadows are more in the foreground. Even that whole bank to the lower left in the painting is pretty dark as well. So I'm just using this darker blue color to get the areas that I'm seeing those little shadowy shapes. And so far I've only used these two values of blue. And this blue I'm using just a little bit more in the distance. I know I've got grasses in the distance, a little bit of shadows being cast onto the grasses. And I'm also going to use this blue to get in some of the color and value for those background trees as well. And there's a tendency with a photo like this to get over detailed to want to sketch in every branch, every leaf. And I advise you to restrain yourself from that, especially in things that are not the focal point. We're just suggesting things. So I'm just suggesting the idea of trees in the distance. Notice I haven't worried about any little branches or leaves on the foreground trees. You'll see me develop those later. Here's where I'm coming in with my third color, which is this pretty purple color. I think this is a Mount Vision pastel. And I'm using this color because it's a little bit lighter in value. And that road, it's kind of the road is warmer in color than the grasses. And this pastel is warmer in color than the blues I put down. And I'm just going to work it in in areas where I see values that are a little lighter in the grasses and scumbling it in behind the trees to suggest again, those distant trees. The reason I work this way, again, trying to work the big shapes and the general values and colors. But also I don't want to start painting all of the leaves on the main trees and then have to work in between them to put in the background. So it's usually best to get your background in first and add foreground elements on top. Now that's typically, you know, sometimes we do get in trees and negatively paint behind them. And you'll actually see me do some negative painting towards the end of this video. Now I'm just blending in. This is a piece of pipe foam insulation. I use multiple blending tools. I just wanted to soften that background. I'm not even worried that much about the tree trunks that actually kind of softens them up by blending over them. And I'm making directional strokes. I'm just pulling in the direction of how the ground is coming towards the viewer. And it really does give more of a feeling of motion energy and gives more of that three-dimensional feel to the painting. And now that I have things blended in, it's time for more soft pastel. And this is going to be my darkest values for the trees. I already got in, like I said, the neocolor wax pastel. And I'm just going to really get my darkest darks in. I like often in a painting to go ahead and establish where my darkest values are. And often I'll go ahead and establish where my lightest values are. And I find that this brings balance to my painting. I stay more consistent with correct values that way. I know that many of these limbs that I'm creating will get covered up with some of the tree foliage. And you'll see that when I go to start creating the leaves and the other branches, I keep it very suggestive. I am not trying, again, to paint every leaf. The painting would come out very stiff that way. You guys know I lean towards impressionism. But you'll see me add some of the final leaf shapes towards the end of the painting. Now when it comes to doing branches, I am following the reference image as a guide. But also notice when I make my strokes, I am giving different pressure. Branches change thickness at certain points. And I've just developed my own little way of kind of pushing my pastel along on the edge and varying the pressure and the branch width as I work. And this tree in the distance is just really, if you look at the reference image, it's just kind of a mass of branches in the background. Now I'm adding a little bit of this red color. I wanted to bring some warmth to the tree. And really the painting looks pretty creepy at this point, right, with all those cool colors. So now we're going to move on to step three, which is adding color to the shadows. And you saw me hold up my pastels there. I'm using some greens from my Unison 120 half stick set. It's a great set of pastels. And I love how it's arranged according to color and value. And when choosing our greens for our shadowy elements, we're using the same principles we used before. We're choosing values that are consistent with the area we're working on. These are the darker shadowy areas. So I have a green that's a little darker in value. And I'm still working against the buckling of the paper. That's why my strokes look a little crazy in some points. But I am just scumbling in this green in areas where I'm seeing in the reference image where the shadowy areas are a little bit darker. I'm reshaping the tree a little bit here. I had gotten it a little bit too short. So that is my darkest green. I believe this is the darkest green that I use in this foreground area. Now I'm going to move on to a green that's a little bit more of a... It's lighter, but it's not by any means the lightest green that I use. And I'm scumbling it in in areas where I'm seeing some of those highlights. I'm seeing the sun shining through. And while I want to get the shadow accurate, I'm not being super nitpicky about every single little shape. It's just getting the general shape of these shadows in. It's going to keep it very impressionistic. I love this really pretty grassy green that's in the Unison 120 half-stick set. It just really gives that feeling of light. Notice the other green I used was a little more yellowy. And this green feels like sunlight is hitting these grasses. So again, just working this in the areas where light is filtering through those branches. And it's like negative painting in a way. Now I have a green that's even a little hint lighter. The background of this reference image is where my lightest lights are. It's like the sun is coming from behind that second tree in the distance. And it's almost like it's directly behind it. And it's just making this brilliant light coming out from it. So that's why most of my lightest lights are going to be radiating out from that tree and also behind it. And if there's any doubt as to the focal point, it's super easy. I was talking about contrast. The highest contrast will be where that tree is, the second tree, and where the sunlight is behind it. Now there are trees in the distance that I know are casting some shadows as well. And it's a little further away. And some of these shadows are not quite as dark as the foreground shadows. So I'm back to using this pretty blue. I think this is the same blue I used at the beginning. And I'm just getting in some of those shadows. But also, you know how in grasses you just have shadowy areas. You have this hill is kind of rolling and there's going to be areas that are a little deeper. And so you get a little bit more of that shadowy color, even just in some of the grasses. Now I'm just scumbling in some of the shadow shapes that this tree is casting. I'm just getting a little bit more specific about where some of them are. And I hope you can see that in this step three of this process, it's turned from creepy, almost. I mean, the trees are still a little creepy, to bright. So that's what these warm, gorgeous grass colors do. Also, even though I'm covering up a decent amount of the underpainting, I think you can at this point, certainly, you can see the influence of the warm tone underneath. And even by the end of the painting, there's still an influence of that warmth underneath. Now imagine if I had just done the two stages. If I had skipped stage one or step one, creating the warm underpainting, what would happen is this painting would be very cool in color temperature. It wouldn't have that little bit of warmth peeking through. So the underpainting and creating those warm colors really creates a more believable landscape to me. Because if it's daytime and the sun is shining, there's going to be some warmth. So the little bit of that orange and red glow underneath, I think, creates beautiful color interest and a more believable landscape. And maybe notice that I'm not particularly trying to paint grasses. I'm just painting shapes. I'm just keeping them very gestural and directional. Again, this is going to cause the painting to really have some dimension. When you have your linear shapes and marks almost pointing the viewer to the direction you want to go. And in this case, it is that second tree. So I have some of my little highlights on my grasses all directionally pointing the viewer. I mean, the viewer doesn't even have to think about where the focal point is. It's going to be very obvious because of the contrast and the mark making. And you'll see that contrast develop as I continue with this painting. You're going to see me add my lightest lights behind that tree, the second tree, and my lightest lights in these grasses. This is an even lighter green. Also, too, with the highlight areas, say, for example, in between some of those long shadows, your lightest values are going to be like in the middle of that section of light. And your values gradually get a little darker as they get close to the shadow. Hope that makes sense. All right, now I'm working on adding some foliage to these trees. I mean, they do have some leaves. They're not easy to even see in the reference image because they're just kind of so blended in with the rest of the background. So I just want to suggest I'm using one of these pretty dark foresty green colors. And notice I'm just giving some little scumbling marks and shapes to just suggest masses of leaves rather than individual leaves, keeping them directional and very suggestive. At this point, I'm going to speed it up just a little bit more, add some music, and let you watch the painting come to life. The Patreon version, by the way, has my commentary and the speed throughout the entire video. So that's sort of an example of some of the extra content that you get as a patron. Of course, like I said, there was some beginning footage that I gave some extra information on the value studies. My patrons get extended content, more commentary, they get my color notes, and we just have a great family of artists in our Patreon family. And my favorite part is I get to see what my patrons do. We have a homework album, a private Facebook group, so it's really a lot of fun. But like I always say, there's plenty of free content here on Monet Cafe. And if you've been enjoying this content on my YouTube channel, I would love it if you would subscribe. You know about 50% of the people that watch my videos have not yet subscribed. You come back and you watch them, but it really does help my channel. If you go ahead and subscribe and click that thumbs up like button, it just ensures that my videos get to more hungry artists all over the world. All right, now I'm going to add music, but I want to give you a heads up on some things to watch for. You're going to see me develop the background trees, more keeping it very loose and lighter in value and cooler in color temperature. Of course, you're going to see me develop the road a little bit. And you will also see me add some negative painting towards the end of that light filtering through the trees. Not only is the light filtering down onto the ground in between the shadows, but in the reference image they were like little jewels of light, bright greens popping in negative spaces between the tree branches. So those are some of the things you'll watch me develop. And then my lightest greens, I'm reserving to the end where they're really going to be brilliant. And shimmery with color. All right, enjoy the music. Please don't go anywhere. Keep watching. Watching to the end is also a great way to help this channel is to finish the video. And I will be back to talk to you some more as well. All right, enjoy the music. Music All right. Wow. Can you believe this painting came so alive with color with the crazy beginnings that it had? But this is an example of how often paintings go through a metamorphosis much like we do in life. You know, we start out all clumsy and real goofy and adolescent years. I know I did anyway. I got real tall real fast and was real goofy. But anyway, this is an example of how your painting has many of the same stages as life does. And I really hope the techniques that I used for creating shadows and my three steps have given you something to try, experiment with, and hopefully you'll find that they work as well for you. I really do love using this technique. I have more shadow paintings coming this month. Again, please like, subscribe, comment on this video, become a patron if you would like extra content or just to support this channel. I do have this original painting available in my Etsy shop. I'll have the link in the description of this video. And I have prints available of this painting on my Fine Art America account. You can find all that in the description. All right, guys, as always, God bless. I really mean that and happy painting.