Ray Hassard pastel workshop, Day 2 Part 2

Still Life on Black 9x12 pastel, copyright 2012

When I concluded that the previous painting was finished, mostly because the paper wouldn't allow me to do any more, Ray came over for a look.  After discussing the paper and techniques for a bit, he noted that I seemed to emphasize deep shadows and dramatic lighting.  I also like to use the side of the pastels to block in large areas of color rather than making careful, precise marks, which he said made my painting very expressive.  That comment in particular has me walking on air.

Then he told me, "I'm going to give you a piece of black paper.  There's about an hour left, lets see what you can do."  Talk about pressure!  But then I realized that really, the pressure was all in my head - after all, it was just a workshop and I only had an hour so if it turned out terribly, no big deal.

To my surprise, it didn't turn out terrible at all.  In fact, I'm quite pleased with it.  Working on black requires a different mind set since typically with pastels you start with the darks and the go lighter, adding the lightest bit last.  With black, your darkest bits are already there so you need to start more in the mid range.   Actually, the biggest problem I had was that the green avocados in a green bowl were rather dull.  Ray pointed out, again, that I needed to place more red around the painting to give it balance and that I needed to make the background more interesting, both of which were true and improved the painting significantly.

So what did I get from this workshop?  I already knew about the underpainting technique and the various papers and pastels.  But I had never tried them before, and reading about these things on the internet is never as good as seeing them and trying them myself.  In the end though, I think it was mostly about getting feedback to reinforce my strengths and point out areas where I need to work.  Keep it loose, keep it simple, keep it dramatic.  Don't ignore the background.  Watch that the colors are well balanced throughout.  Use more red!

I think what I got out of more than anything else is the confidence to see where my strengths are, and especially to see where I need to improve.  I've already framed and hung this painting up in my studio as a reminder both.

Thank you Ray!

Playing with pastels

Round Chair 16x20 pastel, copyright 2011

As promised, here's a look at my play with the new pastels.  This was a fun one with no expectations going into it.  The goal here was just to experiment and see what would happen with new pastels and a new surface.  The pastels are Sennilier half sticks, a set of 80 landscape colors.   I've used them before as I also have a set of 40 random colors, but it's nice to have a larger variety.  Sennilier makes a total of 500 colors, though I'll have to win the lottery before purchasing the full set.  They are very soft in texture and flow easily over the paper but also break easily - one has already been dropped and broken.  But that's okay, it still works!

The paper is black Canson pastel board, coated with Colourfix pastel primer, 16x20 in size.  The board has a large tooth to it and the primer has a very fine texture - the combination works very well for lots of layers.  And I worked in a lot of layers.  In a few places I blended and/or took off pastel with a paint brush.  I also blended with my fingers.  At one point I lightly sponged the surface with a wet rag then moved the damp pastel around with fingers, coating it with more pastel after it dried, which made an interesting texture on the wall behind the chair.

I'm pleased with the results, these soft pastels are perfect for large areas with minimal detail.  Combing them with a harder pastel, and a bit of fixative between layers, should work well for me in a larger format.  This is the first time I've worked with the Canson paper/pastel primer combination and the first time I've worked on a black surface, and I like how deep the darks can get.  I think it will all work quite well for me.