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Author: carly_clements, Contributing Editor
| Using the Technique in a Painting
The support for this painting is Art Spectrum sanded surface paper, med gray/beige in tone, full sheet. When underpainting, you can begin with a white to light toned paper, but I chose this for the value. As you can see from the image, the flower petals appear very light compared to the background colors. With a lighter toned beginning, the contrast would have been more dramatic. I began with a rather loose sketch using vine charcoal. I liked the effect that the charcoal created interacting with the pastels as the painting progressed. Here, you will see that I've laid in a medium purple and a deeper purple establishing my values in the background. The light shines from the upper left so I want to create that effect immediately in the painting. You'll also see strokes of a vivid blue with the deeper purple. As I apply the alcohol and scrub it into the pastel, these colors will blend and create variation in the underpainting which later will become the basis for shapes! Since I've shown a brief demo of the scrubbing process, I'll include only a few tips for that. Working all over the painting, it took me about 20 minutes to spritz and scrub in my underpainting for the background. I could have used the colors all over the paper, but I chose to keep my flower blossoms unpainted. |  |
 | Using NuPastels on the side, I lay down the first layer using variation in the direction of strokes. I don't try to cover all of the paper. When wet, the pastel will spread easily. |
 | Here, you can see a dark smudged area below the petals. I have spritzed alcohol onto that area and scrubbed it into the tooth using my smaller stencil brush. You can see the effect while the pastel is wet compared to the still dry unsprayed areas beside the darker area. Spritz only the area that you can scrub in while the pastel is wet. Once the alcohol dries, the brush will lift the pastel instead of pushing it in!
I like the effect of spritzing because I can work in smaller areas and use my brush to change the shape of the petals with negative painting. You could also dip your brush into the alcohol and scrub an area, but this method can become drippy. For an overall underpainting, dipping the brush and applying the alcohol more like a water wash, would be faster. |
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| Spritzed with alcohol....the darker areas also create a change of value. Watching this change of value can also give me new ideas about where to deepen my color!
I wanted this to be a larger work, but after viewing my detail images, I think it might turn into a series of smaller works also! Don't you just love how a simple technique can generate so much creativity!! |
| I'm using the larger brush here to underpaint some of the blossoms which will be on the shady side of the limb. |  |
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