 Hello my friends in Monet Cafe. This is artist Susan Jenkins and I'm going to be showing you this video where I worked on color fix sanded paper. It's made by Art Spectrum and it comes in a variety of colors as you can see in this package and I have chosen to work on the, I think it's called soft umber color that's in it. I never like working on white so even that white that's in the package I would probably do a toned underpainting just to get rid of that white. So it's a product that I like. I know I talk about UART paper a lot and often I create my own surfaces but this color fix sanded paper is a really really good surface to work on. So here's the sheet I'm going to be working on and I'm going to be describing how to take a reference photo that is mainly green. You can see me rubbing it here. It's very sanded and nice and it does take a lot of layers but I've got this reference photo. I love marshes and here in Florida we get a lot of green in our reference photos and when we paint on site and so it's always a good idea to learn how to tackle that so you don't just have a painting that's just green sky, water and green. So this is a lovely reference photo from Paint My Photo pmp-art.com and so that's what I'm going to be doing and this is probably going to be my last video for just a week or so we've got a large hurricane on the way. That's a disadvantage about living in Florida. Hurricane Irma is on the way so prayers would be appreciated. Now this is my palette. Notice I threw in some purples in there and I'm just doing a basic sketch here so just bear with me for a minute here while I get this sketch done. I did speed up this video in some places more than others. The sketch I'm going through pretty quickly because you don't need to see that but in a sketch all you're really doing is you're trying to get big shapes. No sense in getting in a whole bunch of detail because it's best to work big to small. Now I'm just getting in a basic value study. I'm just using a new pastel. It's a harder type of pastel. New pastel is in you pastel and I'm using this piece of pipe foam insulation you can get at any hardware store and I've heard a pool noodle works just as good. Just to get a basic blending in with the value study I don't do a lot of blending at the end of a painting because it will mute the colors you will lose that beautiful vibrancy of color that pastels offers if you over blend. So this is just really I was using the pipe foam kind of to get that lighter value of that new pastel in the field. So my three main values now are my darkest darks which are those trees and some of the foreground grasses down by the water and then my middle values are going to be the grasses in the distance and on the tops of the marsh and then my lightest values of course going to be the sky almost always and then the water okay. Now trees like this even though they're in the distance and they're dark they're still kind of far away so I'm going to I'm going to cool them off a little bit with some blue. Things in the distance get cooler in color and if you're not familiar with what that means I do have a video on cool versus warm colors. So now I'm just getting again establishing that value I'm getting in a little bit of a green in there but it's still cool. Those background really far trees or mountain or whatever since this is flower those are trees they're very far away notice how cool they are they're almost just a they are they're just a blue and that really pushes them way back into the distance and I just love that effect. All right so still just establishing these dark dark trees and almost always at the bottoms of the tree they're darker than the tops because you know there's more shadows in with the the limbs and the or the roots of the tree the trunks of the trees. Now I'm getting in kind of this cool bluish it was just really a pretty bluish almost like a lavender blue and I give a little more interest to the sky adding a little bit of white later. There's almost always a little bit of white down at the horizon line or light I shouldn't say white I often don't use white I use colors that appear to be white just because of what they're next to and color is greatly affected by whatever value is next to it. Okay now I know that those marsh grasses living in Florida I've seen these grasses my whole life and I know they have that dark value kind of at at the point where they're growing up the tall part of them where they're coming down to meet the water so I know I'm going to have a little edge there and I'm just kind of sketching in the water notice I'm using the side of the pastel and I know a lot of these grasses are going to cover that water up so I'm putting it in first so I don't have to draw the water as much later. I do know that later I actually go in and add a few little pizzazz marks of water in there but I'm just going ahead and kind of establishing that and keeping it very loose again big shapes in this and that is always a good way to work. Okay now I'm adding a little bit of that lighter at the horizon line of the sky you don't always have to do that but it usually is a technique that really enhances it looking more like a sky and notice because I added that white in the sky I simultaneously or immediately afterwards added that lightness in the water because the water is like a mirror that reflects whatever is in the sky so it's usually a good idea just to go ahead and add it to the water if you've got it in the sky. Now again those grasses I know they're green but in the background they're going to be a cooler green instead of a warmer green and also I notice the sun is shining on that field you can't see it in this reference photo as good as I could and by the way the reference photo in the little crop here in the video is not quite cropped like I saw it on my iPad okay I pulled the photo up and stuck it in here but the the image you're seeing doesn't look quite like my reference photo I was looking at it was a little different but again I'm just kind of getting in those big shapes again and I know right behind those trees I noticed there was a darker value and I know too that is in the shadows those trees were kind of casting a little bit of a shadow so that's why it's not only darker in value it's also cooler because anything in the shadow is going to be cooler a really easy way to think of it is the sun is warm right so anything in the sunlight or where the sun's shining bright on it especially if it's in the foreground it's going to be warmer if it's in the shadow if you walk into the shade you could cooler why do you go in the shade to cool off so your colors are going to be cooler in the shade and again I'm just kind of intensifying some of the the cooler greens back in the back and I'm using not just your standard green you know actually look at the reference photo the green I'm using is not the same green that you see in that so once you learn these little rules of painting you can learn to veer away from your reference photo and create a painting that's a lot more interesting now I happen to know that marshes they meander through the or water I should say meanders through the marsh grasses so you're going to get little bits of water almost like a an s-shaped curve or a little snaky type of pattern coming in and out of those grasses and so giving little hints of that in the distance you just add a little part like back there where I gave an indication of some marsh grasses and later I add just a little highlight of some water and everything of course perspective will get smaller and lighter or more pale in the distance so that is just a rule if you remember that alone things get lighter in value they get duller in color and they get usually cooler in the background those things will already create a sense of depth in your painting now of course things in the foreground are going to be darker in value and bolder in color more brilliant more chroma to the color so that's why those foreground grasses I know down by the like the roots of the grass is going into the water they're going to be pretty dark now it's where I'm adding some of the variety you don't necessarily see the lavender or that purple shade in that photo but I know that on the shadow side of it purple you almost always works to add a little punch to your to your painting and I had someone comment in my video where I called it punching up color and they said I was using the wrong term for that and forgive me if I'm using the wrong term but I think you guys know what I mean intensifying color making color seeing and and creating life to your painting so that's what I mean by punching up color now these foreground grasses I'm just giving them some more darkness I'm going to be adding some warmer greens on top of it but it's almost always the best idea in pastel painting to get your darks down first and add your lights on top of it and now you notice I'm still adding those darks where those grasses are kind of where they're growing up vertically and I know that I'm going to put warmer tones on top of it so I'm not using a really hard approach that was kind of soft how I was applying it now again I've got shadows coming down if you look at the reference photo you can see and they look kind of brownish in their shadow or or taupey colored and I'm going to punch it up and give it some interest with with lavender shadows and again adding a little bit more pizzazz to the background I don't want to add too much because it's far away but I do want the color to be interesting and definitely more exciting than green I do know these grasses do have some some browns and some orangey kind of tones to them like I said living in Florida my whole life I kind of know these marsh grasses I hesitate to put too much of it in the background because it's far away you're not going to have as much warm color far away but I did give a little bit back there and it will intensify a little bit more in the foreground and now I'm just continuing to establish these darks because I know that I'm going to add the light on top of it it may even look a little too dark at this point but that's usually how it goes with pastels until you get those those lighter values on top and you might notice too a couple of times as you're watching me how my my head keeps flipping around you can see my ponytail like spinning around and that is because I'm looking back at my reference photo a lot okay you want to I remember an art class I had where the instructor said a common phrase in art is to draw what you see not what you think you see and the challenge is that our brains tend to think we know what something looks like so we don't look back at the reference photo and we just start painting and we can paint for a long time and we're not even there's there is my hair again we're not even looking back at the reference photo to maybe paint it or draw it correctly and and by the way my any art training that I've had I did have some if you've heard some of my other videos I had some in college because I majored in graphic design and some of the fine art classes were required but it it wasn't extensive art training by any means often we just had professors that gave us some assignments and not really a lot of art instruction but I did have one drawing class that I that I like she was a she was a really good teacher and I think you know the the little bit of success that we're having here in Monet cafe comes from the fact that I'm just someone sharing what I've learned over the years and and my love for art I am not a an artist that is you know known worldwide for my art by any means and and I think I've gotten you know okay as an artist and I just love to share this because I remember how much I wanted to learn and how hard it was sometimes on a limited budget and also limited time you know a lot of us we have put our families first moms and dads and we just don't have the time to go to all these you know art seminars and workshops and things and what a blessing if you can though but anyway so that's why my heart is very passionate towards having our Monet cafe group because I know there's so many people like me that you just love it and you just want to learn more and there's something about sharing it together our Facebook group we're having such a good time and I'm in a few art groups and I hate to sound so prejudiced against my own I mean for my own group you know but I feel like it's one of the most loving kind sharing groups I've ever been on on Facebook and I think you guys feel that too so anyway if you're on this channel for the first time check it out it's Monet cafe art group on Facebook and be sure to answer the questions it's a closed group so you have to ask to join and then if you answer the questions make sure you say where you heard about it was on our YouTube channel and then you're almost sure to be accepted into the group now you might have noticed I took some of that blue from the water and I carved in those grasses kind of in the middle of the painting to the left started carving in the shapes rather than drawing the grasses I carved them you know what I'm saying instead of like drawing the individual grasses it's kind of like when you shape your trees in the background often too you're carving them okay now I'm continuing to establish I'm still working on value believe it or not I'm looking to make sure I've got these values right I noticed that some of the water behind those middle grasses is a little darker so that's why I have that purple now to add cohesiveness and consistency to my piece I added some lavender to the sky you know I've got that lavender in the water and that's almost always a good thing to do in your painting is to create that harmony and that just consistency in your piece to wear the colors you don't have just one color sticking out there out of nowhere unless there is there are cases to where you can have just a little bam of color somewhere who's that guy emerald always bam and but you want to be careful about that they need to be placed carefully and strategically so now I'm just continuing I'm adding a few more darks down by the grasses that are at the close to the watermark there and it's kind of making them look more like like sea grasses or marsh grasses it could be the sea it could be an estuary not the sea but you know where we have marsh water that's a little salty and a little fresh and I just love it and you know I ended up naming this title when I finished it yesterday remembering September because we're just now into September and I just know that I know how hot it is here where I live in September but it can also just be so beautiful and then I happen to realize with this hurricane coming and what's just happened in Houston and we have some friends in Houston who experience loss both loss of life and loss of property and it's so heartbreaking that this has definitely been a September that's been sadly one that people will remember for not not happy reasons and so my heart goes out to anybody who's experienced the loss and we're still praying right now and preparing this like I said will be the last video I make at least for a week until we get this through and know what damage is going to be done but if we have a lot of property loss it may even be longer than that so hopefully you guys will hang in there and wait for me to make another video I've taken all of my artwork I have an upstairs part to my studio and I've put everything valuable upstairs and you know what I can paint more and my favorite expression now because I've been through chemo and radiation is uh at least I don't have cancer because I'm cancer free now and you can find a silver lining in any bad situation my favorite bible verse is Romans 8 28 that says all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to them who are the called according to his purpose and so I have found that the Lord can work good things in all situations as tragic as it may seem and you look back later and you go oh look how God used that I'm able now to share my testimony about cancer and and help other people and you know so anyway I know I've got a few people who may not want to hear the things I talk about of God but I think most people who love art I'm not picking any particular religion or belief but you have a connection with your creator and I find that is across the board and I really feel that in Monet cafe we just celebrate the beauty of our world all right so enough of that more on these grasses I feel at this point this is one of those times when I have the advantage of looking back when I make these videos and seeing the point where I'm like man I wish I had a stop there I'm overworking it a little bit here I wish I'd have left some of those middle grasses a little bit more soft but I'm going in and adding I'm still carving in some of those grasses with the water almost like a tool to carve them and I like kind of the chunkiness to that and the the boldness of it but I think I probably could have chilled on that a little bit and not done it in too many areas so anyway so I'm just going to continue to work here a little bit I'm going to turn the music up and just enjoy this and hopefully you've learned that you don't have to take a green photograph or a green place that you're painting and and paint everything green because you can already see in this I've got varieties of cool greens warm greens purples I've got some rusty colors some blues and it really add a lot more interest if you compare my painting to the photograph so hopefully you've learned something here enjoy the rest of this painting and I may add some comments at the end but please if you're not a subscriber subscribe to the channel and you'll get more of these videos you can click the little bell icon if you want to be notified whenever I upload a new video and please feel free to make comments I try to respond to every single comment it's not always easy to do but I try to answer your questions and any any advice or any even if you give me advice I try to to openly listen to that and you guys have helped me a lot with no one how to do these videos I really appreciate it telling me when to turn the music up when to turn it down and we're all working together here to learn more about art and art really does make life better that's my little slogan I guess to our channel so anyway happy painting my friends enjoy this painting and I'm praying this hurricane doesn't give us too much damage and I'll be back real soon thanks so much