In the course of my painting career, I have taken thousands of photographs. The biggest challenge after a ‘gathering information’ trip is deciding which image to select, from the thousands of photographs taken, to use for a painting. Often, one will stand out from a series and say, “Paint me.” Yeppoon Ebb was one of those photographs.
The combination of late afternoon light; the colours; and the composition of the boats was a bit flukey … but then, after all, serendipity is the guardian angel of an artist.
As all of my photographs are digital, they get the computer treatment. They’re cropped and enhanced. I used to have a hangup about using the computer as an artistic tool – but I reasoned that if the computer was a tool available to Leonardo da Vinci, then he would have used it. However, I try not to let it override my artistic integrity.
I painted this scene three times: Twice in pastels and once in oils. Each painting represents the same scene, but at slightly different intervals as the sun was setting. The pastel shown is the earliest of the three. It has the brightest and most vibrant colours. As the sun set, the successive paintings had darker and cooler colours.
Materials
- Artists’ quality pastels.
- Colourfix paper.
STEP ONE
I did a quick sketch on paper just to get the feeling of the subject and some understanding of how the main shapes related to one another.
Now one may ask, “Why bother doing a sketch when you have a perfectly good photograph to work from?”
The reason is understanding. If you do the sketch, you work out some important basic points like your composition and perspective, as well as the knowledge of how the main shapes – in this case boats – are constructed. This is the time to move or delete things that you don’t like – for example, cars and telegraph poles – that are in the wrong place. It is also the time to look at the tonal structure of the painting. The sketch may be rough, but the simplifying of tonal values and shapes is the name of the game.
STEP TWO
I transferred the gist of the drawing onto the Colourfix paper. I used black paper because colours really zing on a dark background and, as this was a sunset scene, I wanted to set the mood very early in the painting.
STEP THREE
I added the first lines and a quick bit of local colour. It was important at this stage that I was happy with the drawing. Some changes can be made (as you will see later) but it is often best to be true to the drawing. If I have any doubts later in the painting, I always go back to my drawing.
For me, starting to put down colour in a pastel painting is always the hardest part. Mind you, finishing is difficult … and come to think of it, the bits in between aren’t all that easy either. The trick at the start is to get the tones right. Correct colour can be adjusted later.
STEP FOUR
The painting had started to give me some direction. I always like this part. Although I have a photograph to work to, there comes a time when the painting starts to dictate which way it wants to go. Be ready to listen.
Now that I was laying down colour, the painting was starting to work out. I often get to a stage in a painting when I am happy with the way it is going. I like to enjoy the moment, because it might not last.
STEP FIVE
Sometimes we view our work and feel that there is something missing. It happens to us all. You might not have picked it in the first tonal sketch, but once you are working on a larger canvas or paper, you want to add to your original sketch. I had one of those feelings and I succumbed to the temptation to add. I already had some photographs of a man and his son collecting bait while the tide was out; so I put them in. Then I knew that it was a mistake. I had ruined a good composition by overcrowding and splitting the image.
STEP SIX
I made the figures disappear and the space was comfortably taken by water reflections left in ruts, and a green tinge of algae. I also started the difficult job of lightening up the work (so easy to overdo) by adding highlights to the mangrove trees.
FINAL STEP
The back of the boat was a problem. I did not have the right tone to give it a nice contrast with the light yellow side where the setting sun was bouncing off – so I used a trick I had picked up. Fixative darkens the pastel. I carefully masked by holding a piece of paper where I wanted the highlights, and gave the rear of the boat a few light sprays of fixative – letting it dry between coats. If I am in a hurry, I can use a hairdryer to do this, but a few minutes is all it takes between coats. The pastel darkened off and I saved myself time and money by not trying to find the correct colour.
All that remained was a general touch up of darks and lights, and a bit of detail around the roofs and foreground.
When I was finished, I signed the picture and rushed it off to the framer before I was tempted to do more to it (and possibly ruin a good painting).
Within days of its completion, this work gained a Commended award in the ‘Pastel of the Year’ at the Pastel Society of Australia end of year competition. I was happy!
