W.I.P on big paper continued

Untitled painting continued…

Tonight I started again on my painting which is yet untitled.

Maybe you each can come up with a title that I can name it.

That’s an idea! Can you suggest a name for it?

(Remember that I monitor the comments before approving them :D)

 
 

W.I.P on big paper continued
W.I.P on big paper continued

I don’t know if other pastel artists paint like I do.
 
I use my fingers to blend and push that pigment into the paper.
 

I do find that this paper I am using (mind you, it is a more expensive paper) is easier to get the pigment into the paper.  The tooth on the paper is more coarse than what I am used to, but I am finding that it doesn’t take as much work to get it into the paper. I just sweep the pastel onto the paper, and blend it with my fingers, and it covers nicely.
 
I am using different shades of grey but I have a hard time finding greys that do not have a blue tint to it.
 
It gets frustrating, but I am plugging away. What I do is put a TINY bit of the grey on first, actually I will paint it on a scrap piece of paper to test the values and hues of the color.

 

This color was not exactly what I wanted, but I add a deeper richer pastel and then put a bit of white in it to blend, and it has turned out better than I expected (Thank goodness!)

 

I use those color shapers too.  I blend with them, they are really great to use, because I can control the places I want to put the color.  The shapers get in the smallest places to add detail. I paint with them too, and what I mean by that, is I sweep the color shaper directly onto the pastel and apply the shaper to the painting.

 

For a fixative, I use plain hairspray.  It costs me about £1 (GBP). Why use hairspray? Because it does EXACTLY the same thing as the fixative that you get in the art shop, but you pay about £9 for it!  So I figure I can buy 9 cans for the price of 1, and it does the same job.

 

If you are a pastel artist, or anyone who can add tips they use, please comment and let us know.

 

Thanks very much for dropping by, I am back to painting!

Ciao for now!

Cindy Williams

6 thoughts on “Untitled painting continued…

  1. I think I’ve recommended Karen Margulis before, but she has a wonderful blog with tips every day for pastel artists. http://kemstudios.blogspot.ca/ At the moment she is trying out water based oils, but I’m sure she’ll go back to pastels soon. She uses pipe insulation to spread the lower layers – cheap and cheerful.

    Also I was talking to a wonderful native pastel artist at an exhibition today. I was explaining how hopeless I am with them and he gave me some tips. He said he has used Pan Pastels and pastel pencils for years. He showed me an instrument like a small palette knife with a spongy end which he uses to blend. Makes sense because it’s like a eye shadow applicator. He said this combination creates very little dust (no kidding he had been painting for a few hours and there were only a few visible flecks on the paint catcher of the easel). He also said the blending tool allowed you to add more layers. As I watched him he had a very light touch.

    PS the painting is great. I’m sure it will tell you it’s name when you’re done.

  2. Divine. No, that is the name that came to mind. But I agree with Sea, it may reveal itself when you are finished. Looks great Cindy!

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