Pastel Values Class Review

The pastel class was good for me yesterday even though it was small, a one on one experience.  I always learn when I teach.

Still life painting gives you a good foundation for all painting.  You can "see" more when you paint from life.  It is very much like painting outside (plein air).  Photographs hide or distort light, especially in shadows.

Egg 'N More

Pastel on Pastelbord, 12 x 9 inches

If you don't usually paint still life, this is a good practice lesson.

To give a realistic look to your items you can start off with the five value system:

5 values:

• Body color or mass color
• Body shadow
• Highlight
• Reflection
• Cast Shadow

You might see the different values easier in black and white.  Check the egg.

The easiest way to start a still life is to look at your subjects and decide how much of the surface you want them to fill.  If you start drawing without a "frame" you might run off the edge of the paper with your drawing.  I recommend a toned paper or an underpainting.  White paper is daunting!

Make your drawing including the shapes of the highlighted and shadow areas.

Then with your colors fill in the body mass, the body shadow and the cast shadows.  The highlights and the reflections are added near the end of the painting.  The side of the painting where the light comes from is the darkest with the area where the light is going or hitting is the lightest.  It is a good idea to have the corners each different and darker than the table to keep the eyes from wandering out of the painting.

This was my demo which I worked on about an hour.  (Everything leaning to the left, hopefully that comes from standing to the side while talking and painting so people can see what I am doing.  I would not finish a painting with the drawing so "off".)  I used the rough side of the Canson paper, so you see the light color of the paper coming through as well.

You can see the five values in this crop a little better.

Then after an hour we did another painting just for fun and practice.  I did not work on a background or the table top in this one.   I recommend you do practice paintings using just use a few items.  I don't use glass or shiny metal for this practice because the shine is a bit different to paint.   This is on Canson Mi-Teintes paper as well, but the smoother side.  It won't take many layers of pastel which makes me plan the strokes.  Both paintings are about  9 x 13 inches.

 Can you pick out the five values easier in black and white?

You can pick a day and do some quick paintings.  Try a still life, plein air or from photos.  Try a new underpainting or technique.  Watch a video and do the lesson.  Maybe get together with a painting buddy.  It is a mini workshop for a minimal cost.  Don't make your practice work too precious as Richard McKinley http://www.artistsnetwork.com/category/art-blogs/pastel-pointers-blog  will tell you. McKinley's blog is filled with instruction and hints.  Check it out.

You can use good paper or Pastelbord and then just wipe it off when done and reuse the surface.  It will have a tone or underpainting to start a new piece of art.  Using smooth paper will not give satisfactory results.   A brown paper bag will give you a couple of layers.

Most of all have fun!