Study of a tree with an ink pen

I went to the park the other day and a tree caught my eye. I decide to try out a chap set of ink pens I purchased at Michaels a while ago. They are manufactured in japan by ZIG and are called Millennium collection. They came in a set of 5 different tip sizes and they seem to work OK for what i paid for them. I haven't gotten a ton of experience with this type of pen and at some point when I paused for a couple of minutes I went to draw again and the pen was dry and it took a second to start working again. Generally you don't experience that with a ball point pen so it caught me off guard. I think logically all felt tip pens would do that so I doubt it's a defect. one thing I was impressed with is the consistency of the strokes with this pen was similar to roller ball when it touched and left the paper resulting in a very good consistent line. I'll keep my eye out for other brands and compare them in the future.

This tree is located in Tryon park in Rochester NY.

9x12 in Sketchbook

Why paint with a time limit?

Generally there is no need to give yourself a time limit unless you are having trouble keeping your painting loose. Overworked paintings can easily become boring and lose their spontaneous look. So unless your goal is a realistic painting, the time limit allows you to practice to not focus on details and instead focus on large shapes and value difference of the subject.

This painting "Not so misty morning" was don as a part of a challenge on a community board. The time allotted was 2 hours.

8x8 Pastel on mounted Uart paper.

Durand Eastman Park

I was going through some of my reference photos yesterday and came across a folder of pictures taken at the Durand Eastman Park near my home. It's a lovely small park located right next to the lake Ontario. It spreads over a few small valleys that form ponds of water that ends up being covered by a blanket of algae bloom in the summer. Here is my impression of it.

8X8 Pastel on U-Art 400 paper.
Please contact me for more info: kruglovfinearts@gmail.com

Fall is in the air

Even though we haven't seen any color on the trees yet here in upstate NY, it  definitely feels like fall out there.

Underpainting using pastel and alcohol

Here is an example of an underpainting that I did by applying a thin layers of harder pastel and then smeared it around using a bristle brush with rubbing alcohol.
It's a good idea to start washing over the lightest colors then move to warm and then cool. Unless your intent is to blend it all together in to closer values.

Keeping it small

Unfortunately I am very impatient. It is hard for me to leave a painting unfinished and come back to it later. I can do it, bit I don't like to :)

Keeping my paintings small often gives me the ability to paint more often and finish most pieces in one sitting. It also helps me focus on values instead of details.

Here is another of my 4x6 miniature landscapes where I focused on treatment of light in the sunny areas.

4x6" pastel

Using bald colors

Who ever said that desert can't have bright colors? Here is my latest interpretation of a desert landscape in the spring.

4x6" Pastel on Colorfix paper

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Also check out this wonderful website that offers affordable art prints:
landscape pastels

Daily painting

Have you ever tried challenges? Some sites such as Paintingsilove.com allow their users to create challenges. It's a wonderful way to stay out of a creative rut.

 4x6 Pastel 

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Finding time to paint often.

Working full time while going to school and having an 18 month old all at the same time definitely leaves very little time to hobbies. Painting daily is important in order to improve or at least keep your existing skills so doing small daily paintings may be the best thing to do. Pastel works wonderful for such a purpose as it requires no preparation and can be left unfinished until the next time. :)

4x6 Pastel over watercolor. For more info visit facebook.com/kruglovfinearts