About Gerard Mineo

Gerard is a 50 year old artist from France and has been interested in art since 1983. After studying architecture for 4 years, he decided it wasn’t his calling in life, so he devoted his life to painting portraits.

Gerard fell in love with Pastels when he was 16 years old after seeing the work of an Italian portrait artist. After several years of training from photos and live models, Gerard put all his effort into becoming the amazing professional artist that you see today.

You can learn more about Gerard by visiting his website at the Address Below:

http://www.pastel-portraits.com/index.htm

Step by Step Pastel Drawing Demonstration -Portrait of Robert De Niro

‘This is a step by step demonstration of my personal progression in the making of a portrait from a photograph. Forget all you know about oil painting technique if you have some, pastel painting steps are totally different. You can work the way you like, you don’t have to care about oil constraints. One rule, work the very highlights at the end, and sometimes, over the sprayed artwork. Beware, unlike oil painting, It is not easy to cover very dark areas with light colors. As information, I give the closest Rembrandt (R), Sennelier (Sen), Vang (V) or Quentin Latour (QL) , reference for any color I use when it is possible, to allow artists to use their traditional palette, but it will be only an approximation. I remind you, most of the colors I use are home made.

Start with a sketch on a 18′ x 25′ velour paper with a Koh-I-Noor Sepia hell lead. It is very important to catch the most likeness possible at this stage so you ‘ll just concentrate yourself on the colors and value in the next steps. Work slightly, no heavy strokes that would mark the paper.	With the flesh tone 2, (~R.339.5+R.409.8) or (~Sen.71) Or (~QL.69) cover all the skin area and start the background around the face with a grey-green tone (~R.709.7). You’ll always work the background and the portrait at the same time, it is important for a constant evaluation of the color balance.
State the shadows and the transition halftones first with Light Shadow tone (~QL.122). Don’y worry with details here. Use a dark grey-blue (~R.727.3) for the jacket. White area, here the collar, will be filled at the end to keep it clean.	Accentuate the shadows in the darkest parts of the face, and state the base for the beard with Medium Shadow tone (~R.408.3+R.538.7) . Mark also the hair root that will make the transition to black hair. You can darken the eyes at this step if you want.
Here, warm the central part of the face with Orange tone (~R.411.8). Don’t cover evenly, just let the basic tone come out here and there. This will avoid a stiff like painting.	The lower part of the face is alway cooler than the rest, especially on men’s portraits. Add a touch of Neutral1 (~R.538.7+R.709.7)on the beard and on the eyes’s shadow to cool it and on shadowed area of the neck. Here I have added a touch in the background as well.
I go on cooling on a larger area of the lower part of the face, up to the cheeks, suggesting the beard beneath the surface of the skin and slightly over the eyes and the temple’s hair with the Neutral tone2 (~R.538.8+R.709.7). Using the same tone, mark the light shadows on the shirt, add some transitions in the background using a light brown (~R.409.8)	Using a Koh-I-Noor Sepia dark lead, key in the darks to define some details. You can start showing some hair at its root and on the beard and mustache.
Now state the evenly lightened areas of the picture, use Flesh tone 2 (~R.339.5+R.409.9) to state them. Notice how this bring some relief to the tip of the nose. Add some spots of blue-green (~R.640.8+R.709.8) in the background to contrast with the overalls warm flesh tone.	Before going any further with the face, lets paint the hair. Use Brown tone (~R.409.3) for the base and add a touch of dark grey-blue (~R.727.3), same thing for the jacket.
Using black tone, darken slightly the shadows areas and the jacket, mark the hair in the beard and mustache and keep some light part as a base for up coming grey hair.	Since the previous step, the background need some stronger values. Here use a dark grey-green (~R.709.3) over and on the left shoulder to fade it with the background. Add some previous colors to the background.
Unlike Oil painting, each time you add a layer, you cover partially the one underneath and don’t mix with it, so at this point, we need to enhance the previous Orange tone and the new beard area.	With the Light tone (~R.409.9), state the highlights all over the face. Give some details to the ear, the forehead and lines here and there by adding a dark reddish tone with a Conte stick #2453. We must see the blood color through the thinest part of the ear.
Now, put the grey hair, use a 1 inch edge of a very light grey-green (~R.709.9), you can break your stick in 2 half circles to get a sharp edge. You must draw the hair in full strokes, don’t hesitate or stop in the middle of a reflection and draw again, this would ruin the effect. Avoid the use of the pastel tip, remember, use an edge. Add black on beard, mustache, eyes, eyebrows. Use the Conte Pierre Noire for the thinest details.	Draw on the grey hair on the beard and the mustache, here you can use a sharpened Carre Conte white 2b. Add also some pure white hair on temples. Darken the background on the right side with black and the jacket down to the bottom limit of the portrait.Before going to the next step, I modified the left eye a little bit, and darkened the eye-sockets.
Close-up of the previous step to see more details, we are almost done.The noze has to be better defined, the area between the eyebrows too.	Lets reajust some values first…
	Here is the final step after a lot of small touches around the eyes,the forehead, the bridge of the noze. The up lip was darkened. I removed some grey hair from the beard, added some blue highlights in the background and their reflection on the skin to fade the right face’s edge in it. This bring some depth to the artwork. I sprayed the portrait in several slight layers. Just e-mail me if you want to know more about a specific step, or about my pastels.. Depending upon you requests, I will put some more lessons. If you are interested in video lessons, just let me know. There are on the way. A last thing, I apologize for my average english. Thank you.

You can learn about Gerard by visiting his website at the Address Below:

http://www.pastel-portraits.com/index.htm

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

The following are some of the more basic and widely used pastel drawing and painting 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 acrylics which 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 pastel 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.