Here is second of my personal challenge – painting 15 pieces of rocks/boulders. It’s a great refresher and study because rocks/boulders can be interesting, but a difficult subject to paint while trying to capture form, texture and colors.
My latest oil pastel study of rocks/boulders (4.50″ x 5.75″) painted on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper (gray tinted). The brands of OPs used were mainly Senneliers and some Mungyo-Gallery – both soft and go on this paper very easily, they were mainly spread with #2 firm clay shapers and my fingers. The paintings will be kept small in this study, because it’s more the subject that I’m concentrating on and not a full landscape scene. The ocean water was added to seat the rocks.
A time-frame was set for this study of one-hour and looking at the finished WIP, I can see areas that could be developed more using lower values to give more textures to the rocks. As I review this finished study I can clearly see areas to be emphasized when I do paint a full ocean scene.
Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for checking in.
Ocean Rocks 1
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Oil Pastels by Mary 
Oh yes! Gorgeous!
Thanks Elena!!
Wow! Gorgeous rocks Mary! I love the colors, the shapes, and most of all the way you captured the movement and pound of the waves roundabout them. Terrific!
Thanks so much for your generous comments – very happy you enjoyed the piece.
Awesome I must keep practicing 🙂 for me it is just water and paper 🙂
Thanks Eunice!
Oh, Mary, I think this is spot on! I really like the warmth in the rocks and the textures throughout this piece. Very nice!
Thank you Leslie for your thoughtful comments and feedback – rocks are a very big challenge for me painting with oil pastels, so 15 studies will give me plenty of opportunity for concentrated studies.
Beautiful!
Thank you Jess!
Fantastic talent…and created within an hour…*claps* and huge smiles 🙂 Very beautiful piece!
Thank you Zara for your nice comment – yes, I’m smiling this morning!
Beautiful, I can almost smell the air the sea, it reminds me of there time I spent in Liguria when I was young!
robert
Thank you Robert, I’m so happy to read your comments – a compliment. I want my seascapes however small in scale to take the viewer to another place and forget about their troubles.
An hour? I’m still sucking the end of the paintbrush after an hour! Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong? It’s beautiful unfinished, Mary. 🙂
You’re not going wrong at all – because this was a study, I didn’t want to spend too much time on details that’s what usually take me a while. I really appreciate it Jo! Thanks so much and hope your weekend is fantastic!
Mary, this is beautfiul! I can’t believe you did it in an hour!! You’re such a professional. Someday I hope to reach that level of skill. 🙂
Thanks so much – appreciate your kind feedback and comments. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.
Beautiful! That’s so amazing that you did that in one hour!
Thanks happy that you liked the painting!
I know the focus here is the rocks but I love the swirl of the sea around the rocks.
Glad you enjoyed the piece – thanks very much Gallivanta. I’m getting ready for a few seascapes.
That will be lovely.
How lovely this painting is!
Thank you very much LadyFi – hope you have a lovely weekend.
I LOVE THAT, Mary !! – I just LOVE it !!!! Why should you need clear definition for everything you create ?; this is absolutely wonderful, and when I win the lottery I shall buy it. It really speaks to me, this kind of work – DO MORE. [grin]
Thank you M.R. so glad you enjoyed this little study. I provide explanation because some folks like to learn about the process and for me, I just like writing about it. Is this going into your freight bin (lol)?
It could replace everything, I like it so much. It is the kind of painting that resonates with me – I suppose because it’s impressionistic. And we both love/d the impressionists. Could you become one ? [grin]
So funny, it’s close to impressionistic and hope one day that my style would be recognizable . A bit hard to achieve with oil pastels, but I’m always trying and think with more experience I can push my style in that direction. Glad you enjoyed this piece M.R.
There is so much more motion and fluidity around, it really brings out the beauty of the rocks! Lovely study! Have a beautiful weekend as well Mary!
Thanks Eva! It feels good to get back into painting rocks and water – takes a bit of getting used to after trees and grass. Perfect weather here this weekend to enjoy nature!
I wish there was a ‘Super Like’ button for your blog posts!
Love it! Thank you for your generous comment ~
Love the way the water crashes against the rocks. Simply gorgeous!
Thank you so much Francesca! Have a lovely weekend!
Very nice Mary. I love the action going on here! In my humble opinion from what I see on my end, your darks and midtones are looking good. Perhaps bumping up the highlights would give you what you’re looking for in texture. As for the materials not performing up to par I can totally relate. I purchased some better oil paints this week and the difference is amazing! 🙂
Hi Rhonda, thanks for your thoughts and comments. Good suggestion, when I paint larger seascape paintings, depending on the atmosphere there will be a bit of creamish/yellow for highlights positioned where the sun hits the rocks.
Although Sennelier oil pastels is the top brand of oil pastels, they are also the creamiest (just like lipstick) as such I rarely use them for my ocean scene’s because for my larger seascapes they’re always on a gessoed prepared hardboard or other gritty surface, whereas these challenge studies are much smaller in size and on a non-gritty surface. If I had time I would have used a razor to scrape in more definition and textures w/these rocks.
Hope that this makes sense – appreciated hearing your thoughts. Have a great weekend.
Sorry Mary. I didn’t know Sennelier was a top brand. I thought Unison was…good to know! Thanks. 🙂
Hi Rhonda, not a problem. Unison is for soft pastels and is an excellent product, they don’t make oil pastels. For oil pastels is a bit limited in choice of brands.
Bravo, Mary! I know exactly how hard to paint, rocks are!! 🙂 Happy weekend, my dear! 🙂 xx
Thank you Marina – this one taxied me. I think it was because I used Sennelier oil pastels with consistency like lipstick so it made for clear definition difficult. But good to remember for when I paint my larger seascapes. Have a beautiful weekend!