Oil Pastel Landscapes & Seascapes

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Yeah. I would've posted in the sketchbook section, but with grad school projects I can't sketch everyday, and even if I did, I don't have the time to scan and prepare them all on a regular basis. I'll try to post here when I can. So anywho, before I make any comments on other's work, I'd better post some of my own. These works aren't too recent. Some are a couple years old. The most recent I did last November? I've been making lots of art lately but I don't have it scanned - and honestly it's not much different. Anywho, This site is phenomenal, and so is everyone's work. I'm very impressed, and I very much want to know where you all are studying - and which exercises/lessons you would suggest to a future art teacher (see more on that in my post on the Art Education forum)

So what have I got to show (testing this uploading format)....

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/smallNewcombBeach3.jpg

Sweet, figured it out... So I drew this from life last summer. It would've made a great portfolio piece but my mom convinced me to give it to the local minister who was retiring. :P Ah well. I could've sold it too.. Anyone else here sell their work? If so where?

Let's find another one...

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/smallNewcombBeach5.jpg

Also from life. Same beach, different day. Both of these are of Newcomb Hollow in Wellfleet, Cape Cod

Here's a portrait of my wife, while we were trying to sell at an art fair last September - didn't sell a thing :P

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/LovelyIvasmall.jpg

And finally, here's Arethusa Falls, in New Hampshire. I drew it last November

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/ArethusaFalls2small.jpg

[the_allejo05]

marvelous..i especially like the beach scenes..is this acrylic? ..keep posting..you can check my stuff on my site..im studying at the www.mimsstudios.com later..

[ArtEdGradStudent]

See, this is why I love oil pastels. I've figured out a way to work with them that is totally unlike what anyone else does - so that even when I post that they're oil pastels in the title of this thread it still doesn't register. Even if my artwork isn't of the same quality as others, it just makes me feel special. :P

Thanks for the compliment Allejo, especially considering I checked out your site and your paintings are so much more impressive. Of course your work is following much more traditional technique, especially in the use of color, you use it extremely well.

I've never had the traditional art technique class - I'm about to audit one at AIB this spring, so it'll be an eye opener for me. What I do, basically is go out and draw what I see in terms of color - basically like an impressionist.

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Ok, here's some work I just made to demonstrate various ways to use oil pastels. They're not my greatest work, since I often don't use these other media with them, but they illustrate some of the possibilities. So this first one I made with just oil pastels, in a long series to show how I use them. Here's the final product - it's from a national geographic photo:

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/landscape16.jpg

Here's a wax resist oil pastel, with water color over

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/WaxResist2.jpg

Here's a scratch drawing with pastel (really not my best)

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Sgraffito5.jpg

And here's a simple one with turpentine added

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Turpentine2.jpg

Here's another where I textured the paper first then drew over with pastel

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/TruroWoods.jpg

EDIT: I have know idea why these came out so small. I don't have the patience with photoshop to change it...

[omarpac]

hey man
the top ones are really good
how can u layer soo well with them????
i like them a lot
ehm ehm
can u post a process plz?????:rolleyes:

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Ok, here's an example I made about a year ago for a lesson plan. This is a study of a painting by Renoir using oil pastels. There are 6 basic steps, not that you have to use oil pastels this way.

First Step: Figure out the dominant colors in your picture, whichever colors are pretty much everywhere. There can be a couple different dominant ones put together. In this case it happened to be green with a little sea blue and yellow. Renoir likes green. I just scribbled out these colors without worrying about details. With oil pastels you can work over areas so you don't have to worry so much about messing up early on. I don't scribble evenly. I scribble unevenly, adding more color where I see more of it in the original.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step1.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step2.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step3.jpg

Second Step: Figure out what kinds of warm/reddish colors are present in your work and add it into your work. Put a bit everywhere, even if you don't see it. It'll mix with other colors on top. I used a brick red and an orange.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step4.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step5.jpg

Third Step: Choose some darks to bring out your forms.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step6.jpg

Fourth Step: find some filler/atmospheric colors to fill in the empty spaces

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step7.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step8.jpg

Fifth Step: Before using white for highlights, find some other light colors as white-substitutes

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step9.jpg

Sixth Step: Final Details. Finally you worry about adding facial features, fine details, reflections on the water, etc...

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/Step10.jpg

These colors aren't as dramatic as some of the life painting examples in the threads above, but they do come close to matching the photo I had. Of course it's better to match colors from a real painting, but I didn't have that option at the time.

[ArtEdGradStudent]

Here's a portrait I just finished. It's from a couple photographs.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/arthursmithsfineart/MattNJen.jpg