 Welcome artistic visitors, subscribers and friends. I'm artist Susan Jenkins and today I'm gonna be bringing you a tutorial of a painting I called it soulful journey and I focus on pushing color I know a lot of you request that and you'd love to grow more in that now This is a video that I had primarily done on my patreon page for my patrons each month I have decided that for my patrons. I'll pick one painting and For artists who give me their permission and I'll give a critique It's very helpful not only to that artist, but other artists who like to learn a little bit more now She submitted a beautiful reference photo and painting and I think I was able to Give her some constructive criticism to an already great painting and her name was bell Jackson Thank you bell and look at this beautiful reference photo So I used her reference photo to recreate the painting and give some suggestions So for my Monet cafe channel, I don't forget about you guys giving you free videos as well I thought I would also give you a little lesson here of that process for this painting I used a piece of you art sanded paper that I have taped to my board here and I also as an underpainting I use the neo color to wax pastels I've used these in other videos before they they really work great for an underpainting You'll see as I work when you add water or alcohol They really brighten up. I'm showing here that if you don't have any wax pastels You can use a regular pastel you don't have to have that product And if you do use just a regular pastel kind of ignore what I'm doing here with my hands But if you use a regular pastel just to tone your paper All you have to do is lightly glaze over your surface and then add water or alcohol So here I'm gonna go ahead and speed up the video because it's not really about the underpainting But you can kind of get an idea of what I'm doing here. So I'll kind of talk over this So I really just use two really two of these neo color pastels and in this you'll see What might not be making sense right now is I'm giving instructions for my patrons On just some drawing techniques and things and and kind of how to sketch out Your landscape for an underpainting But with these water-soluble wax pastels right now you can see I'm using the sides of them I'm using the cooler blue for things that are further away and for the road and what will happen Again, I'll just kind of let this go with some music in a minute But what will happen is you'll see when I add the water I use water in this one But sometimes I use alcohol really just because alcohol dries faster and and I think it gives a little bit of a different effect but for this one I used water and When I add the water you'll be able to see how it really brings these colors to light Now again, I wanted to reiterate that You don't have to use these you can use a regular pastel You could use two pastel colors like this if you want I did use a third there a little bit of a lighter pink But I really didn't need to and then you could do the same thing and just use water or alcohol to blend it in and Basically what I described in this video or this painting tutorial was I used colors in this Very different from what the reference photo was the reference photo was mostly greens and blues And so an underpainting is really great when you can use a color that's and there's not a lot not a lot of that color in The reference image it makes it Really glow behind the final pastels that you put down. So now I'm going to start adding the water I Just use a cup of water Paper towels and I like to use the biggest brush that I can use this keeps me from getting fussy and detailed and Really for beginning stages of a painting and underpainting. It's about big shapes not about detail So again, I'm going to speed this up You can kind of watch the underpainting process as I add the water and then we'll get started with the painting Here are my pastel selections for this particular painting. I wanted to make sure I got some good darks And I did add a couple of more darker values my darks on the upper right On the upper left or my sky colors. I've got some good neutrals for pushing back some of the distant bushes and trees I've got a little bit of that RNG and peach for the road So ignore my pointing here because now I'm doing a voiceover to what I was teaching for my patreon video So anyway, I think I added I don't know maybe five or six more by the time I was done with this painting and here is where the the paper has dried and I'm beginning to add my darks I first just get that it's a pretty dark purple that I have here And I'm really just using it notice I'm I have it kind of on its side and I'm just gently. I'm not pressing hard here I don't want to cover up all of that beautiful pink But I want to get my values in and what I'm doing is I as I work I kind of squint my eyes and just look at my reference image and I'm really just blocking in the big shapes of dark It doesn't matter that this dark pastel isn't covering the whole surface I have sped this up a little bit or it would get a little bit monotonous But as you can see, I'm just kind of lightly glazing. I'm paying attention to where the dark areas are I am going to use another dark to go over this as well and Again, this is this is where we start pastel painting. Okay, we've got that nice Underpainting and I don't want to cover up the whole underpainting sometimes you do, you know when you're working You just get carried away, but it's really nice when you can kind of let some of that beautiful color underneath peek through especially when it's So different from the main colors of your final painting Okay, so you can kind of watch me work here as I'm looking at I'm kind of looking at some of the shadows now and the edges of the road and blocking in to get a Guide for the rest of the painting now. I'm going to allow this to finish up here where I'm Basically just getting in the darks and then for the rest of the video I've been doing a voice over right now, but for the rest of the video I'm going to go ahead and include my commentary as I work on the pastel portion of this painting so you will be hearing what I was actually saying as I was painting So I thought you guys might like that and again, this is the videos that I'm doing Hopefully once a month. That's my goal for my patrons and my patron group And if you want to know a little bit more about that it's it's www.patreon.com Slash Susan Jenkins and I only have one tier some artists have a lot of tier and it's pretty much an appreciation tier But I have can't help it. I have to give you guys more So I'm trying to give more instruction and video for my patrons than on my regular Monet cafe YouTube channel, but I won't forget you guys and Monet cafe I will continue to bring you guys free videos as well Now I'm going to use this some I'm still getting some dark so I'm going to use a little bit of this some kind of a medium to darker value purple To kind of it's not quite as dark at the tops of these bushes I am going to add some green to it But this is going to kind of make it look like they have a little bit more light on them then Then the ones way down so deep so notice I'm not even doing any green yet Okay, I've got a little bit more of that deeper There's some trees back here that look like they're dark But if we want to push them back, we need to not go as dark as that and then there's some more back here There's a little layer remember I talked about the layers There's a layer of trees here and again. This is more of a neutral color I'm doing that because I don't want that to be the central focus And there's I don't lose the road in here. There's a little bit more of that like right in here Okay, and then I'm going to go ahead and kind of get a little bit the same thing here. We've got this some darker medium to dark value Going on down here We're going to add the greens in here, but it's okay to get that Darkest start again. We the darker values down first again in pastel painting. We paint dark to light and We layer in The lightest colors last again this um This under painting is helping me to remember Kind of where things are We've got some shadows going on in here a little bit more of a Edges of grasses right here and it may look crazy right now Don't know crazy and again. We've got some more cooler shadow is crossing here Same right back in here on the bank a little bit. What were these shadows are? This one kind of comes over like a hump right here and then crosses the road We can kind of reshape these as we go. You want to get it generally, right? Okay, so there's the darks now. I did want to get in some of this dark. I think things are much more interesting when you have um Multiple colors of darks and because this tree Right in here. I can't tell in the photo. It looks like this one may be a little Closer than definitely than these. I probably need to bring the roots down a little more here Or whatever this is to make it appear closer and when things are closer, they're usually a little warmer in color temperature So I'm adding a little bit of this warmth in here This is warmer obviously than the other color I put down I might add a little bit of that in here Maybe not as much over here. I want the eye to come to be drawn in here Now I think I'll go ahead and start getting in my lightest light and the reason for that is because Your everything Changes in value and color based on what it's next to and Probably need to add that warm in that and If I don't get my light down first, I don't have a gauge a Degree between light and dark. So first I'm gonna start with this This real teal blue because I'm gonna layer all over this. This is a little too dark right now But that's okay. We usually start with this dark There's a neat little sky hole kind of like back in there See, I just make a hint. You don't have to make any specific lines or anything I'm looking at just where the shapes are kind of turning my pastel seeing where these little Things kind of come and go May add so I think I have to add some of those a different not so dark But a kind of a general neutral color for some of these trees before I finish putting these sky holes in or anything But I like that I like that. I like this teal color. It's really neat on that note, I am going to go ahead and add that kind of Let's see here. I'm gonna add it darker than it looks like in the photo. These are those some those leaf colors leave colors That I kind of want to get in that I'll carve the Sky into Again, it looks like I'm the in the reference photo. There's a lot of sky with little sparse things But it's gonna look much more artistic if I don't try to make it look like individual leaves But more like there's a little bit of that color going on back here in these bushes Whatever they are. It's like a tangle of trees So we'll we'll carve the sky into this There's a lot of sky going on here, but that's okay. I can pull that out and notice. I'm just I'm scumbling I am not painting leaves. We do have some of this kind of coming across the road here I'm gonna add some highlights on this There but not too much to cover up what's going on right here. We've got on this side There's a little bit of light hidden here on this grouping of trees And the difference I think between realism and Painter Lee is that with painter Lee you just suggest things You don't you don't make it. You don't go here. I am a tree. Look at me. I'm a road so it's really It's really best to just suggest and you have a way of Make make a point of central focus what you want and then kind of subdue the other the other things All right, so let me now go ahead Think I'll put a little bit more in here and carve that sky out just doing a demo here I might focus on getting these a little more detailed, but I actually have to go and do something with my mom This is a lighter value. Actually, let me get some of that purple in that I talked about. This is that purple Nope, that's too dark of a value. I think I'll just stick with this little lighter lighter teal value down here Trees are still there. Yeah a little bit there Here you just I'm looking at where it's lighter in the photo and it's definitely lighter in this little area down here And then when I get those other background trees and kind of carve down into that It's a little lighter like right in here. All right. That's pretty good there I don't want to get too detailed too quickly I did have this lavender that I talked about that I I may lighten the sky a little well Just go ahead and do it a little bit right here. Okay, that draws the eye back there With that lighter contrast there. All right, so now I'm gonna focus on getting some of these background layers Remember I talked about the power of neutrals Let's see. This might not be dark enough use. Well, that's a nice color, but I think I need a darker Color for those background trees Yeah, this is this is kind of it's not as dark as some of these darks I put down But it's gonna give me a base I want to remember where my road is it ends like right about back there. So I'm gonna get some of these in And then I'll add that That neutral kind of on top of that See how high did that go? What's about right? All right, so here's that neutral I talked about and it might still be too light Do I have a I have a neutral that's a little darker than that? Let me try that it's in between These three that's a little too green for background This is the one I think I had let me try this one here Yeah, okay, so I'm just gonna kind of lightly scumble over this this is gonna push Those trees back a little more. I'm still keeping some dark down at the roots Okay, but that kind of gives just a little bit of an indication there. All right So now I want what I want to do is I want to get these spaces filled in before I get too fussy on anything I may take this some pipe foam insulation This isn't the one I normally use but I found it literally when my husband was working with some pipe foam insulation I said hey, I've never had that before. Let me try it Make sure I'm still recording. Yes, ma'am. All right, so what I'm gonna do here is I don't want this to be the central It's working center of interest here, so I'm gonna kind of again, just scumbling in To soften up areas that I don't Want the main focus to be on and I want to be a little cautious of this not too Not too much Okay, and that's something you're not supposed to do is blow on your pastels, but whoops. I did it Oh, by the way, my stuff is working here. It did not Cover up. All right, didn't go through there All right, so now I think I'm gonna take I like that pink showing through but I'm gonna soften the shadow out a little bit right here, and then I'm gonna let my my green kind of Come through here. I mean go on top of that as a layer I think I need another layer of dark right in here to reinforce The remainder of this demo is going to be sped up a bit Oh, there's those purple shadows or purple within the shadows that I talked about But some of it has to do with the fact that I don't have the fastest Wi-Fi speed where I am right now And if I get a video much close to an hour or a little over an hour It just takes forever to get it uploaded so but I did want to mention right here that notice that I did add some of those blues kind of And I did lighten up those trees with a little bit more of a blue color in the background that pushed them back even further It's hard to talk this fast But anyway, just pay attention to some of the things I said before that I was going to do and Enjoy the rest of this again the demos or the critiques that I'm going to be doing On a monthly basis. Hopefully a monthly basis is just going to be for my patrons And I wanted to add that I probably will still share the video of the painting and some of the Suggestions on the Monet cafe YouTube channel But I won't choose anyone's work to critique unless you are a patron and very soon probably tomorrow I'm going to be doing the drawing for the prize since we made it to a hundred patrons on my patreon page and Everyone up to the point of the drawing will have a chance to win So if someone becomes a patron today before I do the drawing Everyone will be in the drawing so and again the winner will receive a choice of one of my paintings I've picked out about four for you to choose from they'll also win a copy of my book the mountain queen Which is a children's book. I think it's for any age really and also a $50 gift card for Dick Blick art supplies And that will happen tomorrow. I hope and everything's going great with my mom. Thank you guys for your prayer She is in some of the the yucky part of the radiation right now And but still everything's going great and we feel very hopeful All right guys enjoy the rest of this demo and I really hope these critiques are Going to be something that will help everyone not just the artist that I did the critique for so, please I love your feedback. I love your comments. That's how I know what to do so don't hesitate to give suggestions or You know just give me some ideas as to what you would like to see. All right guys I hope you enjoy and I'll be back at the end for some comments I wanted to note here at the end just to kind of reiterate some of the points I made at the beginning. Can you notice how I took those trees that were kind of sparse on the upper right and How I put more of a mass in and carved in the sky holes I think it made it more interesting also notice how I added the blues and the purples in the shadows of the road and Right now it's still a little bit dark And that was one of my points at the beginning of the video as well that there was kind of a mass of dark there So this is what I'm doing here to kind of lighten that up when things are dark and shadowy a lot of cool blues Kind of give a nice Fun and interesting color and can lighten up a big mass of darkness. This is like the tweaking stage I've got the majority of the painting set now, but adding a few more sky holes So I'm kind of lightening things up. You also can probably see where I added the bright greens on the grass I'll see now. I added a little darker green in there in the shadowy area but um little hints of bright green to indicate where that sun is just hitting those grasses again the sun is being Filtered through the trees so that there's only certain parts with that bright light shining on them So this was a really fun little demo slash critique And I hope you learned a lot Bell and also anyone else who watched this video So I hope you will like comment and please subscribe to my channel Monet cafe. Thanks everybody. Happy painting