I like to work on a sanded paper or sanded surface because I like the tooth (roughness of the paper and its ability to hold the pastel without spraying), but I don't like the cost or the limitations of the products available so I make my own sanded paper using Golden's Ground for Pastel. for about the price of a couple of sheets of commercial sanded paper I can buy a whole jar of GfP and make a lot more (I've never counted but it is more than 2).
I pour a little bit of the Ground into a small container such as something you would get salsa in from a fast food restaurant, maybe about a third of the container and add equal amounts of water. You don't have to do this but it seems to go on smoother and you can control the amount of tooth you get on your surface. Not enough, just add another coat.
I mixed the Ground and water together thoroughly so there were not lumps and applied it to the mat board I am going to use for this project. A side note here: you will probably want to also get either some acrylic gesso or varnish to seal the other side of a porous surface like paper or mat board because when the ground dries it will probably curl the paper. Adding gesso or acrylic varnish to the other side will counteract the curl and flatten it out again, it also seals the paper so if you are doing watercolor, acrylic, alcohol or ink washes as an under painting the paper won't wrinkle or buckle from the moisture. Let this dry overnight if possible before working on it.
When the Ground was dry to the touch (I really should have let it dry longer but it was okay) I took my watercolors and mixed a soft cool (bluish) wash of ultramarine blue with a little touch of purple and/or burnt sienna with a lot of water to give me a bluish/gray wash. I went over my entire canvas with this color because it was very light and most of the snow is some form of blue, lavender or gray not white and where I did have white, I could take a damp brush or paper towel and wipe it off.
Mixing a bit darker wash - more paint less water - I sketched with my brush where I want things to be by putting in the outlines and shadows. Closer things and darker things I made yet a darker wash - even less water to paint - to sketch in where I want those things to be.
Please note that I have not chiseled this in stone, it is only a watercolor sketch and if I wanted I could wash the whole thing off and try again or when I get to the pastel part of this I can ignore what I have and do what I want this is just a sketch to help me get started on my painting.
There is no one right way to start a pastel or any other kind of painting, this is just one way. You can do a more detailed tonal sketch or underpaint with darker versions of the finished color or no under painting or sketch with your chalk and go over it with water or rubbing alcohol... I am just showing you this way for this painting so you can try it if you want to, if you don't and want to stick with what you know, that's fine too, just don't always limit yourself to one method because you might be missing out on something you might like the results of better.
We will start working on this project on Wednesday so I will see you in class.
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