pastel : my very first attempts

[Mado]

Ah ! OK Ed, thanks about the dust problem !
Thank you Marina. I admire your work !

[plt8769]

Hi Mado. congratulation for this very first attempt, but to me I can see that you already master the light rendering with your project. As you do manage perfectly your subject with CP, your ability with pastel won't suffer any problems at all.
I felt the same at the beginning with "gion bayashi" (in this very forum), and I was feeling so excited as long as my subject appeared on the paper.
Pastel pencil became my favorite medium now.
Wish you all the best for your future master-pieces.
'encore bravo et continue dans cette voie' !!

[lumiere33]

Your work is very good, just keep on painting with pastels.
to erase, I use the kneaded eraser (gomme mie de pain).
to darken, I put some dark charcoal (fusain) then I put my color or Sometimes I use dark blue or dark violet(the 178 sennelier)
unfortunately, in france, some paper and pastel brands are not to be found. there are no ludwig pastels. in stores such as geant des beaux arts & boesner, you'll find only rembrandt sennelier & schmink. Conté pastels are cheaper and very good quality. I bought many pastels very cheap on "leboncoin".
if I were to buy my first pastels, I would rather buy Girault, they are less hard than rembrandt and less soft than schmink and sennelier.
As for paper, I can only find canson, sennelier and the one I like best "spectrum".

[GaryNorthants]

Welcome to the world of pastels. Having tried CP's myself and found the time factor to be too much for me to bear I can say you have made a good choice. The main thing to bear in mind is to get your darks in early and maybe a tone or two darker than you first thought. Easy to go lighter, cooler/warmer.... as for sharp edges, pencils, make stencils etc, there is always a way. You are doing great so far, wishing you much more success and fun along the way
Gary

[Mado]

Thanks a lot Eric, Lumière and Gary for your encouraging words.

@Lumière : Yes, i've realised that all the brands mentionned above were not available in France.Thanks for the suggestion about "le bon coin" I had not thought of it.I'll try this for I've also realised that pastels are not cheap !
I tried Canson and did not like it : I could not get rid of the grain.
I like Pastelmat and...it is a french paper (Clairefontaine)and artspectrum too.
I didn't know that you could charcoal underneath, so thanks for the tip.

@Gary : I'll have too use pencils for sure : my edges are messy and terrible looking !Stencils..neat idea, thanks !

[sketchZ1ol]

hello
if you are talking about canson Mi-Tentes ,
the pocked/' waffle ' side is difficult , like any paper that has a texture you can see .
> the smooth side is surprisingly receptive and will accept several gentle layers .

several artists here like the giraults and the contes for their touch and colour .

Ed :}

[Mado]

Yes I was talking about Mi -Teintes. I used the pocked side thinking that pastels would like a little "dents" and texture. I'll give it another try on the other side.

[Fraco]

It´s a very nice pastel. You work very clear and it looks beautiful. Keep on painting