Use Pastels To Enhance Your Command Of Colors By Karl Sultana

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Use Pastels To Enhance Your Command Of Colors
By Karl Sultana

Because of its ease of handling, pastel is an excellent medium for a beginning painter to learn about color or become more familiar with the various pigments derived from diverse sources and how effectively they blend, contrast, or complement one another.

Plan Colors in Advance

A good color reminder is to prepare a custom color chart after you’ve planned your pastel drawing and chosen your colors, but before you begin work. Using the pastel colors you’ve chosen (leaving aside black or very dark colors), apply a one-inch horizontal strip of color across a piece of paper (the same type of paper you plan to use for your work). Leave an inch of clean space between each stripe and write the name/number of each color at the far end.

Then, turn your paper 90 degrees and using the same pastels in the same order apply another one-inch strip of color. You may have to clean each pastel after it passes through each of the cross stripes. Take your time so you end up with each color passing over every other color with pure color between. Don’t worry if the colors smear just a bit as you’re going to be smearing some of them anyway.

When this is done, use your fingertips to gently blend the various combinations where they intersect. Blending diagonally with an additional adjacent color can give you further combinations. Hang your custom color chart where you can see it as you work. Do not use a fixative on your color chart so you can continue to experiment on it to blend colors.

Experiment with Techniques

Experiment using each pastel technique with different pastels (hard, semi-soft, and soft) to become familiar with the slightly different result each gives. Different brands of pastels can also give varying results.

Outlining: For gestural lines and contours, draw with the end of the pastel, wielding it as you would a pen or pencil. Use broad, relaxed strokes employing your whole arm, to achieve expression, and bear down more firmly to alter the thickness of you lines.

Filling in areas of color: Peeling the paper from a pastel and using the flat side in broad strokes will give you large blocks of color. Bearing down harder creates a heavier, darker, color. (Save the paper; storing the pastel stick in its paper helps you remember the color name.)

Hatching and cross-hatching: Using hard pastels or pastel pencils, draw sets of fine parallel lines, either curved or straight to block out your subject. Use several colors, i.e., darker hatching in shadows, light colors for highlights or reflections, consulting your custom color chart.

Blending: Blend by using your fingers or any one of the many blending tools available, such as a tortillon, paper stump; putty, kneading erasers, cloth, Q-tips, or cotton balls. Gently blend filled in single color areas, taking care not to run into lines or adjacent colors and clean your finger or change tools when you move to another color. Where you plan to blend colors, blend the hatching and cross-hatched areas, following your color plan.

Scumbling, feathering, and dusting are other techniques for achieving special effects.

An inexpensive way to acquire a photo to pastel portrait is to commission one from photo to pastel portrait website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karl_Sultana
http://EzineArticles.com/?Use-Pastels-To-Enhance-Your-Command-Of-Colors&id=690149

Popularity: 80% [?]

Share This

An Introduction to Pastel Drawing & Painting

Pastels are a wonderful medium to work with. If you are used to painting in wet mediums like oils and acrylics then you should give pastels a try. They are a very refreshing and enjoyable approach to creating art. This article will introduce you to the various pastel mediums that are available as well as touch on a few pastel panting and drawing techniques that you can incorporate into your next work of art.

SOFT PASTELS

Soft pastels are probably the most popular of the various pastel mediums. Artists love the soft texture and the ability to paint on the colors which allows more freedom and usage of various techniques. Soft pastels can cover large areas and are well suited for blending. By varying the pressure, soft pastels can be applied in very light layers or impastos.

Because soft pastels are so delicate they can break easily so proper storage is important. Do not toss your soft pastels in a loose box or drawer. They must be stored in a cushioned box or tray for protection.

With excessive use, your pastels will become dirty by picking up other colors. This will eventually make it difficult to recognize your colors. You should get used to keeping your pastels clean by wiping them with a tissue every now and again.

PASTEL CRAYONS

Pastel crayons are of medium hardness. They are a cross between soft pastels and hard pastels. They give you the ability to work with painting techniques associated with soft pastels, as well as give you the ability to create sharp lines. They are available in a variety of colors and are quite popular for outdoor drawing because of their durability.

PASTEL PENCILS

Pastel pencils are similar to pastel crayons only they are encased in wood. They are perfect for doing detailed line work and can also be used for blending.

WATER SOLUBLE PASTELS

These wonderful pencils are noticeably different in consistency having a sort of waxy feel to them. They can be used as either a wet or dry medium. A wide range of effects can be achieved with these pencils because of the ability to use water. You can cover wide areas of your paper by creating lines and then transforming them into colorful washes.

OIL PASTELS

Oil pastels are also noticeably different in consistency as the pigment is bound using oil rather than gum. From your very first stroke you will instantly notice the rich deep tone that these pastels produce. Oil pastels are fragile and very sensitive to temperature. Try your very best to keep the wrapper on your oil pastels as you work or your hands will get quite dirty. Just like oil paints, you can use turpentine with your oil pastels if desired.

PASTEL TECHNIQUES

Blending

The characteristics of pastels make them differ in some ways when compared to other painting mediums like oils and acrylics. Unlike oil and acrylicswhich can be mixed on a palette, pastels must be mixed directly on the support (unless you are using the dry wash technique as described below). One such way to mix pastels is by using the blending technique. Blending is when two or more colors are combined by rubbing the colors into one another with your fingers or other blending tools. There are a number of tools available for blending and are discussed below.

Kneaded Eraser

You can purchase a kneaded eraser in any art store. Kneaded erasers are soft and pliable and can be made into any shape. Soften a kneaded eraser into a point and it can be used as an effective blending tool.

Brushes

A variety of paint brushes can be used to move and blend the pastels on your support. Both soft and hard brushes can be used depending on the pastel medium you are using and the desired result.

Tortillon

The tortillon is a great tool to have available for softening edges. When it gets dirty or worn down, you simply unwind the paper to reveal a fresh point.

Cotton Swab

This is another great little tool to have available. It is also great for softening edges and for getting into those smaller areas of your work.

DRY WASH TECHNIQUE

The dry wash technique is best suited for laying out large areas of color. This technique is great for landscape paintings when you need to block in large areas of sky. For this technique you will first need to scrape or crush a pastel into a powder. Then with a soft brush, cloth or other suitable tool, pick up some of the powder and apply it to your support and work it in. You can achieve a variety of different effects with this technique. You can mix different powdered pastel colors together first on your palette, or you can overlay individual layers of color on your support.

Popularity: 82% [?]

Share This

Pastel Demonstration by D. F. Gray….

This demonstration is courtesy of Dan Gray. Visit his website to view more of his work

RAV 4 Demo

Snowing this Sunday, so working in studio

Working on composition and large form

Adding the lights without using my lightest colours

Further along trying to get the details and form of the car going deeper with my darks then my lightest light (but never using white)

Rav in Snow 18 x 24″ on Gray Canson By Dan Gray

Visit Dan’s Site==>DF Gray Homepage

Popularity: 74% [?]

Share This

Pastel Painting Tips - Use Different Color Paper..

If you typically work with only white pastel paper, you might consider spicing things up a bit by working with different colored pastel paper. You can create some very interesting and unique effects by allowing the color of the paper to show through. You are also saving money by using more of the paper as part of the pastel painting and less of your precious pastels.

Here are a few links to purchase colored pastel paper:

Strathmore 400 Series Artagain Pads

Canson Mi-Teintes Tinted Paper

Click here
for more pastel drawing and painting tips from CreativeSpotlite.com

Popularity: 9% [?]

Share This

Pastels Tip

When working with pastels, you will more than likely create a lot of dust during the course of a painting session. Never try and blow the dust from the work surface as it can be dangerous to your lungs. Take your work outdoors and gently tap the paper or canvas to remove the dust.

Click here
for more pastel drawing and painting tips from CreativeSpotlite.com

Popularity: 8% [?]

Share This