Pastels

 Starting a painting

Number one thing: Use a light touch

Gosh, I can't express that enough. It doesn't matter what paper you use, just that you start with a light touch when painting with the pastels. It doesn't matter if you use hard, soft or pastels pencils this is a must. Why? because you must preserve the paper tooth to apply multiple layers.

Why multiple layers you ask? Well, pastels for one are pure pigment and unlike paint that you can mix on the palette, pastels must be blended to reach the desired color. That's what you do on the paper instead and the end results is color that blends much like the impressionist painted. I started out in the 1980's to get more serious about my art. Back then I didn't have a complete understanding of some of these concepts. Sennelier and Schmincke were the only soft pastels on the market so I relied on Rembrants. Paper was also limited so we made our own paper. A class with Master Pastelist Doug Dawson introduced me to that method. Mostly during that time I used Canson Mi-Tientes. I had no choice to learn a light touch but it was difficult for me. Now there is a beautiful selection of papers to choose from.

Gene Franks asked this question to his readers in a Walter Foster Pencil Drawing 1988 publication, "Why Draw?" "Pencil is the basis for all other media. It is important that every artistic person learn to draw. As you master this medium, other creative fields will open up to you". So I studied how to draw. I can't stress that enough. Please review my pages and labels on drawing in this blog. I go into great detail to bring you the most important concepts that I may have struggled with while learning. I do have an AA in art, but that's as far as I could take my college courses at that time in my life. Largely self taught, I have taken workshops from other very accomplished Artists. 

After you have decided what to paint, you've completed your thumbnails and have decided on the best composition, value placement and if applicable worked out you perspective your ready to start on it. I recommend a woodless B graphite pencil (any pencil will work) or a hard pastel in a darker color (lighter if using black or very dark paper). With a light touch get your basic drawing with indications of object placement and a dark value plan. This is using much like a grisallie approach (a painting completed in shades of gray). 

Notice the margins around the piece that will be used to try out colors and relationships with them before I place them in the painting itself. I don't paint to the edge of a board usually. A good practice. 

With this approach you have identified your darks. Now, its time to decide the next step, Darken up your darks. This example is on Canson paper. I like to explore color options and chose a leaf green sheet I had. I want you to consider this: The hardest thing for me to get through my head was the values of my pastels. Even though they are laid out for you (if you did them like me), you probably have few really light options to pick from. Try to paint the whole piece at once, meaning to begin you can use a very light touch to put in the local color on your work of your idea, including the lights. Add these elements to help guide you to your idea. Your mark making should be a light pencil sketch idea (using harder pastels). 

You will discover that your pastel colors mostly are in the middle to dark values. You might have some lights where the colors are almost white. Pay attention to this, it's been the hardest thing for me. Color change does not equal value accuracy. Please test out your colors BEFORE you put them on your painting next to your work. Ask yourself, How do these colors work together? Are they the same value? What do my lights look like next to the darks? Do I have the value changes in the range on the gray scale like you want. This relates directly to how you want to KEY the painting.

What is Key? Key is how light and dark your values relate to each other in your painting. Let's say it's a very foggy kinda day. Your darkest darks might only register around the number 5 value on the gray scale and lighter lights register 1 on that scale. This can be labeled a high key piece. Using the scale as 5 being your lightest and 10 your darkest would be considered a Low key work. 

These concepts are really important to understand. Once you know you got this, you will have the ability to create successful paintings more often. In unsuccessful attempt repeat the same painting idea over and over until you achieve your idea. This applies to drawing and color skill building. Don't be hard on yourself, bad paintings happen to everyone. just learn from them and move on. Throw them away or repurpose the paper if it's possible. This is partly why I use Canson sometimes because it's not precious and I will toss it. If it's on other paper that has the ability to take more abuse, I will try to repurpose that piece. 

Techniques to fix a mistake. It's good news for all papers that we can fix mistakes. Some papers you can only try a couple of things and others can take much more abuse. Canson Mi-Tientes you can take a small or larger brush and brush the pastel off. Take care with the dust it creates when you do this. You do not want to breathe that in. Wear a N95 mask or respirator (best option) while doing this, or take the work outside. Dust from pastels is pure pigment that you are taking into your lungs, something you want to avoid. You may also use a workable fixative (Outside for safety) that wets the paper slightly and recovers the tooth so you can work in that area some more. These techniques will work with any paper that doesn't take wet applications. Papers that take water applications well. Pastelmat, UArt, Spectrum Art Fix and more that hold up well with wet underpainting in any other painting mediums. Although, I never have used oils it would be something worth checking out. Any painting media used needs to be applied in thin washes to save the tooth of the paper. With these papers you may use the same techniques as on the other papers not acceptable of water products mentioned previously. Additional, you can use a wet brush to wet the areas that you want to remove. It will take the pastel and wet it to recover the tooth. The area will look much darker as you remove pastel with this method but usually dries a bit lighter allowing you to work over that area again and again if necessary. Note, if using a colored paper or underpainting color you will loose this original color. The nice thing about this method it can be done over and over as long as you allow the area to completely dry prior to putting more pastel down. Do you have to wait? No, on the more robust papers you can try painting into these wet areas and discover an effect that may work well for you. 

This was done in the water for this classroom study.

UArt 9x11

Even looking closely next to the rock formation you can't tell I used water to rework that area 2-3 times. It did create a nice dark to work on. 

Next time we will look at the process itself of painting with pastels. Remember as you practice use a light touch with your mark making. Save those thicker applications of pastel to capture your highlights. 

Feel free to comment on the type of art process or questions you might that you would like me to address. I would be glad to help out. 

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