Learning how to pastel
 

Hello! Happy New Year!

This is my third pastel this week. Pastels are really tough, but so much fun.

I can see some things that are off already, and for some reason the picture is showing up a little too blue especially on the side of the nose. I am also finding it difficult to get the correct values and colors with a little more than 30 sticks. Anyway enough fault finding from me, any critiques and pastel tips would be greatly appreciated! This is on Canson Mi-Tientes.

Hi Carolyn,

Really great capture of a likeness. I like the chromatic reflections going on over 99% of it. The only place that pops out at me as a bit askew are two teensy areas.

On her lower right jowl area there's the yellowish white spot that creates an slightly unseemly bulge. The other spot is the smear on the bottom of the line of the jaw. Both of these things makes that jowl area sort of distorted.

Geary

Hi Geary,

Thanks a lot for your response. I'll work on that area and hopefully take some new photos. These look way to saturated with color. It really doesn't look like this in real life.:bewildere But I guess maybe there is too much color in it anyway, have to buy more pastels I think.

Hi Carolyn!

I really love your handling of the medium - very fresh, honest.... beautiful edges. I agree with you that in some places the color seems a bit intense. Beyond that, I can't find fault with it. I just started my first pastel yesterday and can already see how challenging it is. Have you been working in pastels long?

-David

Hello Carolyn,

I have nothing negative to say about the way you handled the figure. I like everything about it, the fresh handling that David spoke about. I also like the "landscape" format, and perhaps this is where my only comment lies: I would add some colour to the right side of the paper if not a minor object or element altogether, just to balance off but not detract from the face which, I repeat, I would not touch.

This did take long to do? I haven't worked in pastels for eons although I do remember how much fun it can be. I used to know someone who would work in pastels but with a brush and he would come up with very highly finished portraits. Personally I like the fresher, more spontaneous look.

Happy new year to you too.

Carlos

Carolyn,

I think you have done a REMARKABLE job with the very limited amount of sticks at your disposal. My first set of pastels was done with a beginners set of 300 colors, and I found that difficult.

I don't mind the blue, little patches of a color surprise don't bother me as long as they are the proper values as yours are.

I have two areas of concern, the first is the yellowish patch on her jaw line. You don't need it it, it jumps. The other part is her arm, the upper part is too narrow. You don't in my opinion, need anything on the right of the picture.

You seem to have a natural aptitude for pastel, it must be in your genes as the greatest pastellists of the past were French, like de La Tour, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau and Jean-Etienne Liotard.

However, not to be chauvinistic in these delicate times, I find the Great American Pastels superior than the Senneliers in color sequencing and softness.These features are important to the figurative artist and they do not crumble. They are also now available in France.

I really think you should add to your collection of pastels. You are off to a really wonderful start.

Carolyn, long time no see -- and our loss. Please keep coming back -- from wherever you are this week. You may be one of our more peripatetic members. Please go into the Cafe and tell us how you find yourself in Nice, and what you hope to make of it in terms of your artistic bent.

This is beautiful, thoughtful work, without the addition of any 20th-Century neurosis medium or technique. Just the genuine, spontaneous article, very fun to see.

Pastels built upon pastels yield amazing mixes. The impulse is often to go for the big effect. Sometimes you can sneak up on mystery and joyful surprise.

Okay, compulsive guy comes back...

Never neglect your major value areas. Do not -- Do not -- put lights in your mid or dark value areas that are the same as values in other areas of your work. (Okay, there are exceptions; they're not invited to this party.)

I usually charge $100 for this (ha-ha, we artists are such cards) but here it is, free: SQUINT

Squint at your source (live or photographic) and at your rendition. You WILL see a correlation, and much more importantly (if you're really looking), a difference. Eliminate that difference, and you will astound the roman forum. That's a good thing, as Martha says, since a thumbs-down gets you a sword through your ambition or a quarter-drawn episodic character.

Well, I'm hoping these images are closer to the actual colors. I tried to fix a couple things but forgot about the width of the arm so I'll have to do that still. The second image is a possible crop, still not sure though.

Hi David,

How's your pastel coming? I just started getting into pastels this last week, besides an elephant I drew about 12 years ago. And I'm not sure that really counts. So this is my third try with them. I hope you're enjoying this medium. I think it's wonderful. Thanks a lot for your nice comments!

Hola Carlos,

Thanks for the response. I've had this piece stairing back at me for a few days now, and I keep wondering about the background or how to crop it. I understand your wanting something on the right side. It does seem a little off balance right now. I think this piece took about 12 hours or somewhere around that...

So have you been to El Retrato Espanol at El Prado yet? I love that museum. I'm very lucky that my husband is from Madrid, so pretty much every time we visit we stop at El Prado. There's a Mengs in this exhibition that took my breath away! There are also a couple just passed the Mengs on the left hand side but I can't remember the names. I even ran back to them before leaving to look at the names! I'll have to draw you a picture ;) ! One is a male figure standing, leaning on a chair maybe and there is a picture behind him. I really loved that one but couldn't find any reproductions of it in the gift shops. Of course Velasquez is always fantastic and Goya too! His work confuses me though. Some is so highly polished and incredibly beautiful and others are, well, almost the opposite of that.

I read in your bio that your a copyist there! That's fantastic! I would love to stop by some time and see you work and chat a bit. We'll have to keep in touch. The El Greco you posted is beautiful!!!

Hi Sharon,

Thanks so much for the nice feedback. I must admit I was really hoping you'd comment. And your post really made my day! I'm not even sure what brand these pastels are. The art store nearest to me doesn't have a very good selection of pastels. Think buying on line might be the best way to go. I've read your pastel list in another post so I'll be using that to refer to when purchasing some more. Which I am dying to do! Is this some kind of addiction!?

I think they put something in the water here. I haven't been able to stop doing art while before I never could begin. I've been lucky enough to move to France for my husbands work. We were just at the Musee D' Orsay a couple weeks ago. There are so many beautiful works there, including quite a few wonderful pastels!

Hey there Steven,

Yes it's been a long time! Too Long! Thanks for your awfully nice comments, and for your jewels of wisdom as always. I did squint this time but I guess not enough yet. I'll try to work on it a bit more and fix those values. The last few years of moving around have been amazing! And so far I think I like Nice the best. The color of the ocean here is this incredible blue green color that just glows! I am such a happy camper! Thanks as always for your comments, they're greatly appreciated!!!

An addiction with no recovery programs
 

Carolyn,

A good place for you to get the wonderful Unisons pastels online is at www.cornelissen.com. They have Schminkes and Senneliers as well. I think they probably have the Great Americans in Paris. (Sounds like a song).

Oh horreur, quel faux pas! From your conversation with Steven I realized you must be Spanish. Oh well!

If you can afford it try to get as many full pastel sets as you can. I literally have thousands of colors. When you have a large range to pick from your work will absolutley fly!

Try to work from life as that will really give range and expression to your color. I go back and forth, but rely mainly on models . I have a lot of beautiful photos but they seem so flat after working almost exclusively for over two years from life.

Pas de probleme Sharon!

No faux pas ici! I don't mind being confused with any other nationality.:) I'm sorry I did't make it clear. My husband is Spanish but I'm from Arizona. I've been very lucky to be living these last few years in Spain and Belgium, and now France. I'm just happy you could see some potential in the work, and happy you thought it was in my blood!

Thanks for the link. I'll see what I can get! I love working from life. I really hope to some day just work that way. I am hoping to find some classes here. But I'm afraid my french is terrible! For now maybe I'll find some friends to pose. Thanks again, Sharon.

I love this, and have a word of advice...STAY AWAY FROM SHARON, she will feed your addiction and cause it to grow! ;) She got me so hooked on those Great Americans that I became obsessed with figuring out a way to buy the whole set without having to put it on a credit card so I have cleaned out my closet this weekend to sell the junk on ebay and am already halfway there!!

You are a natural at this.

Carolyn,

"Croissant" is as far my french goes, but then again I don't really need it here, and I'm glad you speak english and I imagine spanish also.
The right hand side balancing-off thing is a personal thing of mine...your cropped version works fine although I would crop it while still maintaing the horizontal format. I covered a bit of the original image (what I figured would equal to about 5cm off the paper) and I liked it and it could even solve the balance thing without having to add anything (colour swatch or other element). But, I insist, this is a thing of mine.

I'm quite ashamed to say that I have not been to the retrato show. It opened when I was working on a copy there, (in fact I encouraged other members in my introductory letter to visit it if they had the chance) but they have very strict rules on copying and I was under time constraint and I knew I could not just whiz past by the show the 15 minutes that I usually afford myself for my breaks. Then my stint with the copy ended and I got busy with other things and I'm really sounding like I have all these excuses that don't really hold water, huh? I RESOLVE TO GO THIS WEEK...AND PROMISE TO VIEW THE MENGS WITH ALL MY ATTENTION.

Where in Madrid is your husband from? Do you guys come over with frequency? Would be nice to get together in the Prado one day and check out the rest of the copyists. Do keep in touch.

Carlos

Thanks Mary!

And best of luck with your sale! I just bought some more pastels today, had a smile from ear to ear all the way home. :sunnysmil

Hi Carlos,

Thanks for the views on the cropping. Yes we'll have to keep in touch. Now that we are in the south of France I think we will make more frequent trips to Madrid. So I'll let you know when we plan a trip to El Prado! Enjoy the exhibition!

I admit it. I led poor little Mary down the path of pastel perdition. CACKLE!