Description
PASTEL PAINTING NOCTURNES: From Dusk to Dark with Betsy Payne Cook
Date: Saturday, May 3, 2025
Time: 9:00AM-4:00PM
Price: $160 Members / $185 Non-Members
Description
The changing atmosphere from dusk to night lends itself to scenes of mystery, quiet contemplation and raucous drama. Nocturne paintings of the landscape, cityscape or interior scenes force the artists to shift value and color choices. We will explore the changes that happen after daylight has disappeared and our view has limited natural and manmade lights giving us a chance to sprinkle in a bit of imagination.
Through demonstration and exercises Betsy will share key strategies and tips to paint scenes from dusk to dark. Preliminary work will focus on the partnership between value sketches and notan designs to enhance your composition for an end of day setting. Creative color options will infuse personality into the night scenes, and Betsy will introduce ways to heighten the emotive quality. This is a great time to partner those brilliant colors in your palette with dark and mysterious colors! Betsy will provide demonstrations and plenty of individual easel. Handouts will be provided.
Workshop Focus
Morning: Demonstration on preliminary work, to include composition, value, notan and color studies. I will be showing you two approaches to painting a nocturne and you will decide which approach suits your intended painting. I will offer tips on when to choose light/mid toned sanded pastel paper with a notan underpainting as compared to using black/dark sanded pastel paper.
Afternoon: Painting demonstration. Putting your morning work into action to paint a nocturne scene on either light or middle toned sanded pastel paper with a notan design, or painting directly on a black sanded pastel paper. Decisions will be made based on the photo reference you choose to paint.
Required Supplies
Night time photos: *Photos will be available if you do not have your own.
Tips for photo references: Dusk is a great time to take photos if you do not have a fancy camera capable of capturing good night images. Collect images that rely on a strong value contrast often found with the glow of lights landing on objects- moonlight, light at dusk, houselights, car lights, neon lights, street lights, and reflections on wet surfaces. Especially intriguing are images disappearing into the shadows. I would suggest that you print on photo quality paper to ensure good reproduction. Have your images on your phone or ipad so you can refer to the photo on a back lit device.
Pastel paper for color studies: Canson Mi Tienes or any similar quality pastel surface. Light and dark options.
Sanded pastel surfaces for paintings are highly recommended: Art Spectrum Colourfix, Pastelmat, UArt all sell black or dark surfaces.. For the notan design option please have a light tone surface, and I will have a painting medium for you to use to paint a notan, resulting in a two toned underpainting. You have a choice of using either approach to painting.
Pastels: Bring a selection of both hard and soft pastels with a range of temperature ( warm to cool) and some fun intense colors (maybe the ones you rarely use). Important to have a selection of middle dark and dark value pastels. Betsy is happy to offer suggestions. Please contact her directly.
Brushes: You will need a ½ “- 1”brush.
Paints or inks for underpainting or toning your sanded pastel papers if not using black surfaces. Suggest gouache or acrylic inks. Please no oil or acrylic paints.
Backing board such as black or white foam core board so you can attach your pastel papers to a rigid surface
Apron, paper towels
Drawing tools: value scale, sketchpad, pencils, ruler, kneaded eraser.
Optional supplies:
Grey toned sketchpad or paper and black & white Sharpie china wax markers (looks more like a pencil). I do most of my sketches on grey toned sketch paper. Demo will show you how I do that.
Optional Materials Fee:
Betsy will have pastel papers and sanded papers for you to purchase. Ranging in sizes from 8 x 10 to 12 x 18, both light and dark options. Small fee to use acrylic inks for toning papers if needed.
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