My friend and mentor, Bobbie McKibbin of Drawn West Studio, recently asked me about the steps I take to complete a pastel painting. My process has been to complete the initial drawing using Nupastel and Rembrandt hard pastels. When the drawing is complete, I use a variety of small watercolor brushes and rubbing alcohol to carefully dissolve the pastel. I proceed slowly because I've used light, medium and dark tones in the drawing and I don't want to lose the value map I've produced. Once the underpainting is dry, I finish with soft pastels which might include Unisons, Senneliers, Giraults, Terry Ludwigs, or Mount Visions.
Bobbie made me think about shaking up my process. That's always a little scary. You've found a process that works for you and now you want to change it! But here's the rub.....I would love to execute a more painterly expression of my ideas. So with this painting I only did the wet underpainting on the flower itself.
I really like the result! It's more abstracty (that's a word, right?) and a little looser. Definitely like where this slight change in my process has taken me. From this point forward, I will evaluate where the wet underpainting would make the greatest impact and use it sparingly....famous last words.
For this pastel painting, I used 12"x12" Ampersand Pastelboard, and framed it with a 1/4" black matte metal frame and 3" archival antique white mat.
My friend and mentor, Bobbie McKibbin of Drawn West Studio, recently asked me about the steps I take to complete a pastel painting. My process has been to complete the initial drawing using Nupastel and Rembrandt hard pastels. When the drawing is complete, I use a variety of small watercolor brushes and rubbing alcohol to carefully dissolve the pastel. I proceed slowly because I've used light, medium and dark tones in the drawing and I don't want to lose the value map I've produced. Once the underpainting is dry, I finish with soft pastels which might include Unisons, Senneliers, Giraults, Terry Ludwigs, or Mount Visions.
Bobbie made me think about shaking up my process. That's always a little scary. You've found a process that works for you and now you want to change it! But here's the rub.....I would love to execute a more painterly expression of my ideas. So with this painting I only did the wet underpainting on the flower itself.
I really like the result! It's more abstracty (that's a word, right?) and a little looser. Definitely like where this slight change in my process has taken me. From this point forward, I will evaluate where the wet underpainting would make the greatest impact and use it sparingly....famous last words.
For this pastel painting, I used 12"x12" Ampersand Pastelboard, and framed it with a 1/4" black matte metal frame and 3" archival antique white mat.