Exploring Soft Pastels Class: Still-Life the Colourful Way!

[marionh]

Charlie, thanks for your wealth of info. I've never heard of Fisher so will see if I can find it. I'm just about to order some more la carte and some clairefontein pastel mat to see what that is like.

[robertsloan2]

Pam, thanks for mentioning pastel pencils. I may use those for my version of the colored glass, I like how yours came out and they are handy. Also I could work small and still have it come out well. Might try Wallis and pastel pencils.

Marion, yours is gorgeous. I love the final tweaks, what you did with the background values livens it up so well and the little citrus fruits are still the focal point. I'm glad you enjoyed eating the mango, if I'd done that the fruit would have been irresistible by the time I was done.

Charlie, thank you for your rundown of sanded papers and mentioning opaque primer over watercolor stinkers! Sometimes some of the old painting can become an underpainting, but you just reminded me that if I totally hate it, I can Paint It Black and have a beautiful piece of black Colourfix to do something bold and bright on!

[marionh]

Thanks Robert. I think I like this fruit study enough to frame it.


Couldn't resist any longer, so have started the glass vases study.

I decided on this crop as I wanted to get in as much of the shadow and I had a specific size of paper (1/4 sheet of la carte sand colour) - I know the rhs vase lip kisses the edge of the paper, but I figured once it was framed it would chop off the kiss anyway



Stage 1 Glass Vases Study


Please also comment on my drawing as I'm useless at ellipses and think they look OK until it's finished - then it's OMG.
Sorry about the crooked photo.

Stage 2 Glass Vases Study


Sorry taken indoors so looks a litter redder than IRL.
I kept wanting to go straight to stage 3.

[snowfall]

Hi

Charlie - thanks for your advice. The red glass is looking a bit dodgy (as is my drawing when placed next to the photo). The red definately needs to be darker - not sure whether I will use a pastel stick for that. That's the only trouble with pastel pencils - you are quite limited with colours.

Marionh - thanks. Yours looks greats. It really glows after all your tweaks.

Xina - yours is looking fab too. I thought about doing a crop myself but didn't really have time to focus on it too much so I just did a straight copy.

Robert - I wanted to see how it would look with pastel pencils as I want to keep practising by doing lots of small, quick studies and practise my crosshatching at the same time (the mind is willing but the hands are so shaky). The only problem, as I mentioned earlier, is a smaller range of colours but this shouldn't matter as much for small practise studies.

Charlie - I will incorporate the changes over the weekend.
Would this method work for acrylic painting? I bought loads of acrylic paint over a year ago when I first decided to start doing art, but have never really used them much as I was taken over by the pastel bug. I thought I might try to learn to paint as well now I have gained a bit more confidence. The only way I would want to learn acrylics though is by building up the painting using glazes and this method does seem perfect. Have you tried with acrylics and do you think it would work with glazes? I remember your oils and they looked so wonderful (oils are a no no for me because of the smell and slow drying time). Could the same be done with watercolour glazes? At the moment I am unsure whether I want to learn acrylics or watercolour but as I already have the acrylics I will try them first.

Thanks for all your help and for doing this thread. I have really enjoyed it so much.

Pam

[marionh]

Thanks Pam for your comments - I'm enjoying myself so much.

I want to try it with acrylics as well. I thought a good covering at stage 1 and then scrumbling for the other stages with the different colours trying to keep to the transparent colours especially for the lights, or adding gel medium to the opaques to get them more trasparent. I would also like to try using a knife over the original underpainting.

I will wait though until I have nailed this in pastels, I think - unless I get carried away

I know Charlie also uses oils, so it should be doable in acrylics.

[marionh]

Vases study - Stage 3



I think maybe I am too bright still, especially in the reflections - but I do hate dulling down colours

[Colorix]

Hi Marion, start and 2 are looking great!

Ellipses: post 669 shows a simple way of making them decent.

Kiss: You're aware of it, and you've made a conscious decision -- good! If you make the outlines blurry at the edge of the pic, it will not attract any attention. Let the edges be sharper in the part affected by the blue bottle.

It is hard to keep to the stages in this one. The stages are guidelines more than rules, and they are a method for learning this. I know one artist who makes each object complete before going on to the next. Not perfect, IMHO, as the parts are influenced by the whole. Better to try to keep to the stages, so most of the painting is developing at the same rate all over.

Charlie

Originally Posted by marionh

Couldn't resist any longer, so have started the glass vases study.

I decided on this crop as I wanted to get in as much of the shadow and I had a specific size of paper (1/4 sheet of la carte sand colour) - I know the rhs vase lip kisses the edge of the paper, but I figured once it was framed it would chop off the kiss anyway



Stage 1 Glass Vases Study


Please also comment on my drawing as I'm useless at ellipses and think they look OK until it's finished - then it's OMG.
Sorry about the crooked photo.

Stage 2 Glass Vases Study


Sorry taken indoors so looks a litter redder than IRL.
I kept wanting to go straight to stage 3.

[Colorix]

Marion, is this looking more like it? I lessened the yellow-red component, and upped the blue:


Looking good so far. Do dull down the shadow darks, that will give you a clear difference between objects and shadows, *and* it will make the brights look even brighter. Totally understand not wanting to dull down the glowing beauties, but It Is Good For You to do it. (Don'tcha just hate doing something Good For You? )

Stage 4 took forever for me, as there were so many details. Just so you know what to expect. Usually, stage 4 is fairly easy (especially as we've done so much of it already in 3.... usually rushing on).

Charlie

Originally Posted by marionh

Vases study - Stage 3



I think maybe I am too bright still, especially in the reflections - but I do hate dulling down colours

[Colorix]

Pam, you can darken red with green and purple. Green will dull and darken, and purple will darken (if it is deep enough). Well, blue too, of course.

Pam said:

Would this method work for acrylic painting? I... The only way I would want to learn acrylics though is by building up the painting using glazes and this method does seem perfect. Have you tried with acrylics and do you think it would work with glazes? I remember your oils and they looked so wonderful (oils are a no no for me because of the smell and slow drying time). Could the same be done with watercolour glazes?

Marion said:

I want to try it with acrylics as well. I thought a good covering at stage 1 and then scrumbling for the other stages with the different colours trying to keep to the transparent colours especially for the lights, or adding gel medium to the opaques to get them more trasparent. I would also like to try using a knife over the original underpainting.

And I say: This method was developed for oils. Painted with a knife, no medium used at all. So Pam, you'd get the slow drying time, but not the smell, other than from linseed oil, and that is actually edible. Nowadays there are water-thinnable oils, too. In my old paintings, the layers are thick-ish, as the knife gives an impasto effect.

I have tried acrylics with brush, but they drove me crazy, as they dry too quickly (for someone used to oils). I figure a retarder would work, and there is a new product with open ended acrylics, with slower drying time.

Watercolours are a mystery to me, but it is said that this method works well with them. Yes, you layer, but I don't know any more of how to apply them. There are all these mysteries of wet-over-wet, or wet-over-dry, and re-wetting and such, and I really have no clue as to what method is used.

So, it ought to work with transparent layers of acrylics. It makes sense, as acrylics can be used much as wc. Otherwise, impasto opaque-ish broken colours worked quickly over wet.

But, the glow and the beauty of this method is to mix the colours wet-in-wet on canvas, plus broken colour. Plus applying wet-over-dry. Oils are perfect for this. And, happily, soft pastels.

If you try wc and acrylics, do let me know how it works. The trickiest part would be to reverse parts of the process, as in wc you work from light to dark. Oil pastels seem to need that consideration too. (I've tried it once, so far. Will be more.)

Charlie

[Judibelle]

Hi Charlie....I'v just ordered Susan Sarback' s Capturing radiant Light & Color book from Amazon.com. Also ordered one by Lois Griffel called Painintg Impressionistic Landscapes... are you familiar with that one? Should be getting them by early next week...
anyway, looking gorward to them both....
JB

[Colorix]

JB, congrats to getting two good books. Both ladies were taught by Henry Hensche, so their methods are very similar. One of the most notable difference is that Griffel uses some earth reds and browns, too. They may work really well in underpainting of shadows, but at later stages I think they look out of place in a painting, sort of jarring as they are not consistent with the rest, but, for underpaintings, yes (this is my personal opinion). She has some gorgeous pastels by Rosalie Nadeau in the book.

Sarback's book is great, if you got the revised edition, with the words "soft pastel" in the title. She is more of a 'purist', and use basically only ochre and indian yellow, as earth tones. Those are good for lightening and yellowing in stage 3 and 4 variations in shadows, without brightening them as the cads would do.

Otherwise, they teach very similar stuff, and I've found great good stuff in both books. Though I do have a preference for Sarback, and the look of her paintings. Funny, as she likes cool sort of 'dusty' colours, and I'm all for warm bright, and warm autumnal colours, which is more as Griffel paints.

Also, I think Griffel might be a tad closer to what Hensche taught. Sarback has developed her own method of teaching, and simplified it. Still, her paintings are more like Hensche's.

Sorry, more than you wanted to know, I'm sure. Both books are great!

Charlie

[robertsloan2]

One full assignment behind -- before I tackle the colored glass, I thought I'd get started on "Bullies" for the Round Objects and Block Shaped one with my own objects. So here it is -- my photo reference (pathetic) and my Stage 1.

Caveat about the photo reference, my memory of what these colors were in life is a lot clearer than the murky dark photo, so the art should come out a lot better than the photo by the time I'm done. I still have the paper and the towel for comparison and do remember clearly what the fruit looked like when I look at the photo. I'm used to working from bad photos, been doing it for decades.



That pomegranate's gonna get a pounding.



This might be my most hideous Stage 1 painting yet. I used Pan Pastels on 140lb watercolor paper primed with clear Colourfix primer.

[marionh]

Robert, interesting concept and what looks like a good stage 1 to me.
Will be watching with interest.

[Colorix]

Rob, Whaddya mean "hideous"?! Gorgeous is the right word! Strong, clear, beautiful!

Go on, probably did already.

Charlie

Originally Posted by robertsloan2

That pomegranate's gonna get a pounding.



This might be my most hideous Stage 1 painting yet. I used Pan Pastels on 140lb watercolor paper primed with clear Colourfix primer.

[Colorix]

Photo where you can actually see the objects, Rob's photo. (Light is rather cool, so go with your memory!):