Sail Fishing Fleet, Ketchikan 1905

"Sail Fishing Fleet, Ketchikan 1905"
Pastel on board, 11 x 20

"Daybreak on the Tongass"

Its been quite a long time since posting anything on our blog.  Been hanging out over at Facebook as its easier to communicate with family and friends.  Anyway about a year ago a co-worker approached me about doing a commission pastel drawing for another co-worker who was retiring after 20+ years working for the government.   For about 10 months or so I sort of sketched up a number of ideas, even tried to draw a family portrait of his parents, and mainly took photos of sunsets and sun rises of the area.  Here are few photos of the work in progress (WIP)...

 

"Daybreak on the Tongass"

11" x 17" [Final]

 

#5 - work in progress, adding highlights and more details

 

#4 - work in progress, adding more details

 

 #3 - work in progress, filling the sky

#2 - work in progress, laying in the ground

WIP#1 under drawing on pastel board

All in all it was a fun process to get through after being away from the drawing board for so long.  I decide it was best to stick with traditional dry approach versus doing a wet brush under coat.  The commissioned artwork was well received at the retirement ceremony by my co-worker.  Another co-worker presented a Haida carved paddle which was an amazing piece of artwork.  

Tug Boat & Peacock

"Mariner's Landing"
Oil Pastel, 6" x 11"

Decided to work in oil pastels versus dry pastels this weekend down in the studio. Oil pastels historically were first made by a Japanese artist at the end of World War 1 to enhance the educational schooling in that country. Oil pastels consist of pigment mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder. The surface of an oil pastel painting is therefore less powdery than dry media pastel types, but more difficult to protect with a fixative. I use a clear shellac for protection on many of my oil pastels. Picked up this protection technique 20 years while attending Atlanta College of Art.

The above drawing (painting?) was done in my sketch book to experiment with the media. I did some earlier experiments, but thought it best to stay on that track for a while before working on a large piece. Started with a pencil sketch, followed by filling in with large swatches of color while using solvent to move the oil pastel around more easily. Once I got the under painting done then I applied a single layer of clear shellac. This not only protects the under painting it also creates a fresh new surface to continue drawing on. The tug boat has two layers of clear shellac with varying layers of oil pastel, then finished off with single layer of shellac. Shellac dries very quickly, solvent on the other hand does not, so either use very little or wait until it dries before reworking.

"Peacock Study"
Oil Pastel, 5" x 8"

The peacock study was done on wallis paper, which is used primarily with dry pastels, but works fine with oil pastels none the less. Used too much solvent for the under painting so I had to let things dry over night before reworking certain areas. I also used clear shellac on this painting, but used only one coat for protection. We when to Calgary Zoo a couple of years ago so I had several photos to choose from of this peacock. Thinking of doing another study of this bird, or perhaps I'll do a much larger and more refined painting worthy of framing. One last thing is that it very difficult to photograph these paintings, so I recommend scanning them if possible.