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 Monday, August 25, 2008
Washing Pastel to Produce an Underpainting
Posted by richard
 Producing a wet underpainting with pastel is something many paitners have experimented with. Personally, I enjoy doing a watercolor underpainting when working en plein air, because of the immediacy and simplicity of opening a small watercolor palette, dipping a brush into a little water, and letting it go. In the studio, on the other hand, I often turn to thin washes of oil paint, using a large amount of mineral spirits. In both cases, it's important to select a paper that can withstand the process. Wallis sanded pastel paper or the new Uart premium pastel paper are good choices. If you choose to use pastel to produce a wet, drippy, runny effect (similar to what watercolor and oil create), I do have a few tips: - Know your surface. Can it accept certain solutions without a problem? If water is to be employed, then a ridged sturdy surface will be needed; otherwise, it will be prone to buckling. If mineral spirits are used, make sure it won't soften the adhesive that was used to mount the paper. For these reasons, I generally stick to a simple rule, using water on mounted paper and mineral spirits for unmounted paper. Note: If the pastel paper was archival mounted using a pH-neutral heat adhesive or PVA acrylic adhesive, it's fine to use mineral spirits. Rubbing alcohol has been another popular solvent, but I avoid it since most of our surfaces have an acrylic nature and may be softened—if not removed—with its use.
- Use bright pure pastels, avoiding sticks with white or black added. These “tinted” and “shaded” pastels often produce cloudy effects when spread. Think of your pastel choices as if they were tube pigments. If the underpainting is to have a translucent quality similar to a watercolor or glazed oil paint, the substrate should show through. The whiter and brighter it is, the stronger the diluted pastel pigment will appear.
- Test pastel brands (on the surface you plan to utilize) to see how they interact with water and mineral spirits. Many manufactures add inert products to their sticks to create a characteristic feel. These products can be water-resistant or gummy when made wet. The purer the pigment content, the less change will occur when dampened. Many of the current brands work very well, but I've found that Sennelier pastels stand out as a constant winner; their pastels are pure pigment with the tiniest amount of binder and no fillers added. These pure pigments are capable of brilliant underpaintings, producing less of a clouded/muddied appearance. Holbein also makes an interesting small set of water-soluble pastels. This tiny set of 24 colors is a joy to spread around when water is utilized. Try your favorite brand to see how it responds.
- Apply thin amounts of pastel. Don’t attempt to cover the entire surface. Too much pastel will create a paste and over-fuse the colors, creating mud. It's advisable to start by wetting the lightest/brightest areas before proceeding to the darks. The darks can easily contaminate the lights and should be handled with care. Allow the darks to be a little lighter and more colorful. This produces a better underpainting, giving the shadows more depth.
Remember that an underpainting is just that, a setup for the pastel painting. Keep it thin and mysterious, allowing the pastel application to produce the resolve. Pictured above: An example of a pastel wash on Wallis paper, using both water and mineral spirits as a solvent.
8/25/2008 11:27:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Monday, August 18, 2008
Creating Textured Brushwork in Pastel
Posted by richard
 Pastel has a close kinship to oil: Both are opaque and often hard to tell apart when viewed from a distance. Obviously, oil and pastel have their differences. Oil is wet and applied with a brush or painting knife, and pastel is dry and applied directly in stick form. Oils' ability to retain brushwork is what marks its major characteristic. This brushwork becomes the signature of the artist and has been masterfully utilized over the centuries by artists like Rembrandt van Rijn, Diego Velázquez, John Singer Sargent, Robert Henri, and Nicolia Fechin. The bold bravado stroke of the brush filled with thick paint imparts a sculptural appearance accenting the painting’s topography. This accentuates the appearance of texture and depth, creating a painterly (in the fashion of paint) appearance. Pastel, being applied by the stick, doesn’t easily produce the same qualities. It goes on solid, only appearing to have texture when interacting with the ground it is placed on. As artists like Degas began to push the medium beyond the realm of sketching and into fine art, they experimented with a variety of textured grounds, producing painterly results (check out some of the ballerina paintings of Degas to see how masterfully he utilized the texture of the ground). Today’s artists are still experimenting with textured grounds, producing the appearance of bold, bravado strokes that have as much visual power as the finest oils. Modern acrylic mediums have made this task easier and more archival, allowing heavy textured buildups that retain a degree of flexibility and are non-acidic. Manufacturers like Art Spectrum, Lascaux, and Golden Acrylic Company provide a series of pastel grounds that are ready to apply. Some artists prefer to make their own by combining an acrylic medium with grit (pumice powder or marble dust are widely used for this purpose, refer to blog post “When Homemade is Best”). Depending on the thickness of the ground, a heavy or light brush texture may be produced. Hog hair bristle brushes work well, imparting the same “swept” appearance as they do for the oil painter. (See the photo above for a close-up look at a heavy brush-textured ground with pastel raked over the top.) Whichever pastel ground you end up choosing, it will need to be placed on to a suitable surface. Make sure it is sturdy and ph neutral (non-acidic). Experiment with different strokes and find which best suits your individual style. Then get ready to deal with the comments, “I can’t tell your pastels from your oils."
8/18/2008 10:55:31 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, August 11, 2008
Downsizing a Palette for Travel
Posted by richard
 Whether attending a class or working en
plein air, it can be advantageous to have a smaller downsized palette instead of trying to transport an entire studio. But, with so many pastels to choose from (mind you, I'm not complaining), it
can be a difficult task to narrow it down. All artists’ palettes need to facilitate the three aspects of color: hue, the individual color family; chroma, the intensity or saturation of said color; and value, the relative lightness or darkness of said color. Simply stated, we need a full spectrum of color representing every hue and grayer degrees of those hues at a variety of value from near white to almost black. Don’t rely on one brand’s complete set to provide everything you require. By selecting individual pastels across a range of manufacturers, you will be better able to represent the full spectrum of color. Brands also have personality, their own characteristic feel. Some are very soft and velvety, while others are slightly hard and gritty. Typically, harder pastels serve well for dark/dull passages, imparting a limited amount of pastel allowing heavier luscious layers of light to be added on top. Conversely, softer pastel sticks work better for the light/bright sections. These allow a bold bright mark to be applied, representing the power and intensity of light. The old opaque painters' tip of working thinly in the shadows is well heeded here. Strong sturdy pastel palettes have made our painting lives easier, allowing for easier transportation of our pastels. Two of the major manufacturers ( Dakota Art Pastels and Heilman Designs) offer a variety of sizes. The larger sizes are better suited for studio/classroom work, when we're able to open them in a secure stable setting. The medium boxes hold a large amount of individual pastels (especially when half or smaller pieces are utilized) and are a good choice if car travel is your means of transportation. The smaller compact boxes hold less but provide adequate room for a sensible palette and are much lighter when packed great distances. Removing the label and breaking the stick into a usable size also allows for more individual selections to be transported. If a palette holds 120 full sticks, it will be capable of accommodating 240 if broken in half. By breaking pastels into half size pieces and selecting harder brands to represent the bulk of the dark/dull tones with the softer brands selected for the bright/light tones, a downsized palette can be accomplished (see my example above), providing a full spectrum of hue, chroma, and value. Everything we need to paint well except for inspiration, knowledge, and experience. But that’s another discussion.
8/11/2008 4:58:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, August 04, 2008
A Vist to Dakota
Posted by richard
 I recently took a trip to Dakota—Dakota Art Pastels, that is, in Washington state. Visiting here is like a holy experience for many of us who remember the "Dark Ages" of pastel when there were only one or two pastel brands available and surfaces were scarce. Well, we've come a long way. With a national magazine, The Pastel Journal, and the proliferation of pastel societies hosting and promoting the medium, pastel can now take its place as a major force of artistic expression. This growth is never more apparent than on a visit to one of the major mail-order/retail pastel businesses in the country. Dakota Art Pastels is an immaculately organized and well-run business that has just about everything a pastel artist would ever want (notice I didn’t say need). Every pastel brand is available—minus one (Henri Roche)—from the smallest boutique handmade pastels to the major makers like Sennelier, Girault and Schmincke. When it comes to surfaces, again just about everything—no matter how obscure—is available. Even if you prefer to make your own surface, they have the ingredients.  And if you're thinking, "Is he getting paid to say this?" I can tell you that the only money that exchanges hands is from my wallet to theirs! The interest I have is totally self-serving: I want to be able to get what I need when I want it. Robyn Williamson and Craig Lemley (see photo above) founded Dakota Art Stores Ltd in 1990 with retail stores in Seattle and farther north in Bellingham, Wash. In 1998, they put out their first Dakota Art Pastel mail-order catalog. Shortly after that, a pastel warehouse/distribution center (pictured above) was established in the quaint setting of Mount Vernon, Wash. This has expanded to include a storefront and their latest acquisition, La Conner Art Workshops. Mount Vernon is approximately an hour north of Seattle, set in a beautiful agricultural valley that acts as the gateway to the San Juan Islands. When you visit, you easily see why they decided to build the mail-order business there. Besides the livability, it's a landscape artist’s paradise. Bring your pastel box and plan an appropriate amount of time. They'll welcome you into the back (the vault of pastel heaven) and allow you to open your pastel case on a wheeled cart and select as few or as many individual sticks as you wish. The resident dogs, Macy and Sam, will keep you company as you explore—in a dazed state—this pastel paradise.  If you're not able to visit, be sure to acquire a catalog and visit the website for the stores ( www.dakotaartstore.com/) and for the mail-order catalog ( www.dakotapastels.com/). When you call, you'll find the phone/Internet order desks to be staffed with “the Lisa’s” (pictured at left). Everyone is knowledgeable and friendly. It really is like “family,” which is what the pastel community has become.
8/4/2008 11:28:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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