Visit my Patreon Page for more painting instruction and Paint Along Videos!

Saturday, February 14, 2015

What to do When You Don't Know What to Paint

'In the Poppy Field'               6x8             pastel          ©Karen Margulis
sold
 It was one of those days. I wanted to paint but I didn't have anything in mind. Nothing. I took out a few photos. I took out some paper. Nothing was speaking to me. I was close to calling it a day. But then I decided to put on my 'What If' hat.  I needed a play day. I needed to try something unexpected. It was time for an experiment.

I taped up a 6x8 piece of white Wallis paper and pulled out a reference photo of some poppies. I needed to find an unexpected way to start the painting.


I looked on my shelf of spare pastels and supplies and found a small set of Art Spectrum pastels. I don't even know where they came from. I had never used them so they would be perfect for my experiment. I took a few of the pastels out and did a fast abstracted underpainting. It was fun and I was now feeling warmed up!

My reference photo


I wanted to cover up the white of the paper so I thought it might be fun to spray the pastels with some rubbing alcohol. I put some of the alcohol into a spray bottle and started spritzing the painting. In some areas I sprayed more until the pastel was wet enough to drip. I let it drip.


The wet pastel seemed thick. I looked on my shelf and saw a palette knife. What if I used the knife to move the thickened pastel around? I found that I could spread the wet pastel like icing. I could even draw lines into it. I drew the poppies with the palette knife. This was fun!

The pastel was still pretty wet so I took a paper towel, balled it up and blotted the entire painting. The paper towel left interesting marks.  I now had an interesting underpainting.


I began layering pastel once the underpainting was dry. I added the background trees and sky. I put in the poppies with several red pastels. I was now using all of my usual pastels which are mostly Terry Ludwigs. I found that the palette knife action created interesting texture. It helped me suggest the grasses.  I finished the painting by adding more grasses and tiny bits of other wildflowers.

In the end I had a painting that made me smile. I had fun experimenting. It was a bit like cooking a dish with whatever is left in the pantry. Pulling things out and mixing them together until they worked.

4 comments:

robertsloan2art said...

Oh that sounds like fun! It reminds me of a couple of times paintings started because I found a piece of paper I didn't remember I had or some pastels I hadn't used for a while or ever. Sometimes anything can be a starting point!

Sue Grilli said...

Karen- oh poppies are one of my favorites! And I love how you worked through this painting. Lovely!

Unknown said...

As always, I was very interested in this under painting technique! I will definitely give it a try!

Kaethe Bealer said...

Sounds like a lot of fun! I had fun just reading about your process! Your painting was a success as well! Thanks for sharing it!