Monthly Archives: January 2012

Violin

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I think this is the first pastel painting that I am actually pretty happy with. There are certainly some things I could do better; but I am fairly satisfied. The image is from the photo reference library at wetcanvas.com.

I started this one a little different from my previous efforts: I did the initial drawing with black pastel and laid in the values, then went over the black & white rendering with an alcohol wash. This did a good job of keeping me focused on laying in the correct values and forced me lose an edge or two.

Soon-to-be Mimosa

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I’ve been struggling to get muted colors from my soft pastels.  I asked for advice over at wetcanvas.com and was told that I should try some harder pastels.  Good news that I got some NuPastels for Christmas, so I could try this out.

I’m fairly pleased with how easily these colors blend, but I have a long way to go figuring out what works best in each situation.

This piece is only 6×6 inches, and even with the harder pastels, it was still tricky to get a nice sharp edge on sanded paper.  More work to do there, too.

One last note: this painting was done from life (a departure from my earlier pastels which were done from photographs).  I built a shadow box this weekend from black foam core, and lit the setup with a small clip-on lamp and a daylight bulb.