A Day of Experiments in Pastels

The first thing I decided to do this afternoon after sketching to warm up, see previous post, was to take a pastel painting off a board, 18 x 24 inches. The painting has been around. We already reused the frame and it was time to start over on the board.

I brushed the pastel off with a brush into a foil tray to put the pastel dust in my pastel dust can. I put the dust left when I do a painting in a can to save as well.

Then I went over the board and leftover pastel with a brush and water to end up with a new under painting. The board is masonite with acrylic medium mixed with pumice for the surface that I put on with a brush. It gives texture to a painting unlike using an even sanded surface like Pastelbord. I haven't decided what to paint on it.

I was putting the pastel dust in the can and realized I had about a can full. I was saving it to make some gray pastels. I should have done it sooner. Now I have a bunch, all the same gray. Ah me.

I hadn't ever actually recovered the dust this way, just read about it, so you can now see my process.

I got out a plastic plate, plastic wrap, plastic glove, and a spoon ... oh, and the pastel dust.

I started to add water, a little at a time. It doesn't mix in well, the water floated on top and under the pastel. It took quite a bit of stirring to get it to absorb.

Because of that, I got a little too much water in the mixture and couldn't roll it into nice shapes. Impatient, perhaps? I will know next time to add the water more slowly.


This looks a bit like doggie doo, doesn't it?? Sorry for that analogy. Yuck. No smell, of course!


I imagine after it dries for a couple of days I can roll it on the plastic wrap and get a better shape to the mud sticks.

It may take a little more time here because of the humidity, but this week is one of the driest we have had. I will keep you posted and take photos of the reformed sticks.

I will try to separate my colors a bit more in the future so that I can make a variety of grays. I can save the mostly pink from the little painting I did today and keep a can with reddish colors in it. After doing a big sky and water I can save the blues, etc. Should give some nice variety of shades and still use my leftovers.

Speaking of the painting today, I was still undecided what to paint on the large board. I started going through photos on the computer and "real" photos in my reference photos I keep in a drawer. Nothing caught my eye. I remembered that there was a thread on the pastel section of wetcanvas.com to post a sketch painted on for an hour or less and this week the selection was "a flower".

I had noticed a bad photo of some beautiful hollyhocks from Frances' yard in Magdalena, so I picked that. I put a 5 x 7 inch piece of green Pastelbord on my easel, set a timer, put on my iTunes and went to work.

This is the result after about 40 minutes. It lacks some things, but it is, after all, only a sketch.

I still haven't decided what to put on the big board, but I feel closer to my quest. At least I got my pastels out of the plein air bag they came home in from New Mexico. Maybe by the time I decide, my new gray sticks will be ready to use!