Summer Pastel 2015

Pastel Project: TJ’s Bouquet Week 1

To begin the last class I did a demo to show how easy it is to create your own sanded paper using “Golden’s Acrylic Ground for Pastel”. I had prepared a piece of light gray mat board by first painting the back side of it with white gesso to seal it also to help it lay flat when dry. You can use any acrylic medium or varnish to seal the surfaces of your paper or board gesso is nice because it also has a bit of “tooth” to add. If you use gesso to seal both sides of your board you might want to lightly sand the side you will be applying the acrylic ground to get a smoother surface. You can add color to the gesso as you seal the board to get a colored background or paint a color using watercolor or acrylic to get a toned paper or board which is what I did to the board I was working on, I had black gesso I used to seal and tone it first then applied the ground.

When I applied the ground, I had thinned the acrylic ground with equal mix of water and ground and mixed well then applied it to the surface of my board. You can use it straight out of the jar but if you dilute it first you can get the kind of texture you want to work on. Let it dry and if needed add another layer of ground.

You can use this process on almost any surface you want to do a pastel on though I do suggest that you use heavier paper like watercolor paper or Bristol Board, it can go on Masonite, wood panels, mat board, foam core, the choice is yours you just need to find what surface you want to work on and experiment with it.

To start the project I showed how to transfer a design on to my board by chalking the back of my design then tracing over the line once I’d placed it on my board. You can also draw directly on your board using a color such as a light blue or lavender or gray that will not interfere with the other colors you will be applying.

Once I had my design on I started filling in the basic shapes with color starting with the basket. I looked in my colors for a soft warm gray for the base color for my basket, I also looked to see if I had a darker version of it and a lighter one but if you don’t have other versions of colors find a warm white like a soft yellow or orange for the light color and use a lavender or blue with the base color for the darker color, then base in the basket starting in the middle with the warm gray and work to your left adding and blending in touches of the lavender or blue and to the right adding in the warm white color. Use the base color with the warm white for the handle of the basket. I did a bit of detail on the basket using a sienna color for the rusted paint and a very dark brown for the deeper rusted metal.

You should have your photo in front of you as you paint so you know where you are going and what you need to do next, I am constantly looking at my photo as I paint no matter what medium I am painting in my reference material is where I can see it.

The yellow flowers I based in with a medium yellow, not my lightest yellow. The centers of the sunflowers were a dark brown with a little sienna in the centers. My roses were 2 different reds one a bit brighter the other a bit darker and cooler like a dark crimson, the leaves had 4 different greens from a very light almost yellow (you can use yellow for the very lightest green if you need to) to a medium light green to a mid-value green to a dark green for shadowed leaves. I am just placing color at this point not doing detail not worrying about anything other than the overall design. If I need to make changes at this point I can no problem or I can start getting more detailed if I don’t see anything I need to change. I am far from finished at this point so don’t panic if you are still figuring it out.

Last but not least, I wanted to separate the basket from the dark background because when

I added the dark brown to my basket it was hard to see. If you look at the photo you will see that there is a bit of light shining on the counter, it is not a bright light but it does help separate the sides of the basket from the dark background please note the shape of the light there are angles to it because the basket is blocking some of the light casting a shadow on the counter. I used a soft lavender blue for this light area and I made go back later and add more “light” but this will do for now.

Try to get you painting as close to this as possible and I will see you all in our next class.