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Author: Deborah_Christensen_Secor, Contributing Editor
| Here’s the dry paper ready to use. You can see that as it dried it flattened out nicely. It isn’t stretched taught, but it can be taped down to a firm board and the finished painting can be mounted behind a mat with no problems.
It’s a good idea to wait until the paper is thoroughly dry before going on to the next step. |  |
 | Tape the paper to your board and examine the surface. Carefully brush away the majority of the loose powder from the paper, taking care not to scatter it everywhere. Oftentimes this is best done outdoors where the wind can carry away the sparkling dust. You cannot stop the flaking away of some fine powdery glitter at this point, so accept that.
Look for an area that isn’t too thickly coated with paint to place the drawing. In the thicker areas the paint fills the grain of the paper, obscuring the tooth needed, although no matter what, the surface will be somewhat smoother than normal. I use the tip of my finger to smooth out the pastel where the bird is placed. Knowing the gesture of this little Costa’s female I plan to paint, I place the end of her beak next to an area of texture suggesting foliage or flowers. I’ve measured her wing length to be sure she doesn’t get too large and structured the body on that scale. I plan to blur out the wings, giving the impression of movement there, so I don’t want to over-detail them. |
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| In this close-up you can see the little strokes of overlapping color. It’s still pretty raw.
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| I added a touch of sky color around the edges to give the impression that the hummingbird is hovering in mid-air. It serves to clean up ragged edges and define shapes, as well as diminishing the almost overwhelmingly bright background color. I rubbed the blue pastel into the gold paint using my finger and then further blended it with a color shaper, which I also used to blend the feathers together a bit more.
I decided to crop the paper to a square so that the bird is almost off the page. This gives the impression of quick movement captured in a split second and makes for interesting compositional possibilities in the square format. The final touches were in the eye, in which I added a black pastel to define the shape, and then a tiny touch of light that brings this bright little Female Costa’s Hummingbird alive. |
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| B i o g r a p h y | |
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Deborah Christensen Secor is an artist, writer and contributing editor to The Pastel Journal. |
| Pastels have become one of the defining facets of my life. I paint, teach and write about the medium. My BA in fine art launched my art career, and I spent several years in the late 80s working with PSA Master Pastelist Albert Handell, which I consider my 'advanced degree'. I founded The Pastel Society of New Mexico, and have been affiliated with The Pastel Journal since its inception. In 2006 two books devoted to pastels feature my work. Pure Color: The Best of Pastel, features a night painting, and a book authored by my friend Maggie Price contains several of my pastel paintings, some of which are step-by-step illustrations of the process. I'm blessed to be a wife, mom, child of God, and an artist. | |
| E-Mail: DSECOR@peoplepc.com Web Site: http://www.deborahchristensen.com | |
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