Pastels by color and value

Although I have seen many professional pastelists order their pastels by color and value, I haven't done this to all of mine in a long time... until recently. Partly because I teach and do plein air with my pastels (and use different color palettes depending on what I'm painting) and also because of the number of boxes I have, it seemed to be a hassle to order ALL of my soft pastels by their color and value.

But, I realized it was hurting my work. It was difficult to "see" the colors and values of yellow, say, when some were together and some were mixed with other colors! So, now that I have done this, it's been great for my current paintings AND I realized I had some duplicate colors that went into my teaching or plein air box.

It also made for some cool photos! If you compare these pics to my October 13 post photo, you can see what I meant about colors being mixed up.



[At the top is a photo of some of my Unison Soft Pastels. Directly above is my box of Richeson Soft Pastels. Both are hand-made. Unison are best quality and my all time favorite pastel... ever! The Richeson are good because they are big and bright & affordable... but I can't layer as much as with the Unison.]

Almost done.

"Below", pastel on board, is my most recent pastel painting. It's shown here above almost completed. The texture is rougher than many of mine usually are. I used a tinted Colourfix primer that I painted on top of a GatorFoam board. Therefore I got a more random texture from the brush application. (A number of pastelists paint their own textured surfaces, including Susan Ogilvie.) I especially like the way the color drags across the texture on the surface of the pool... really mimics the light moving across wall & floor.

This is the second painting in which I've used lots of bold red. Since I have been painting this series of women in pools for so long, I do get bored from time to time and have to shake it up, so to speak.

I also approached this a little differently after watching a Susan Ogilvie presentation earlier this month. She has a very methodical, strong approach to her pastel painting. She uses bold marks with subtle color variations to add interest. I don't think anyone would think of her work when looking at this painting, but her influence is there nonetheless. (It is a great idea to see other artists work... can really be inspiring... not to copy them, but to learn from their approach!)

The evolution of a pastel painting.

This is what I have been up to... in between sharing my marketing & strategic planning ideas with other artists and getting inspired seeing Susan Ogilvie start a pastel yesterday [www.susanogilvie.com]. I was volunteering during her workshop hosted by Piedmont Pastel Society [www.piedmontpastelsociety.org]... of which I'm a member.

So, anyway... here is the evolution of my latest pastel painting... not quite done yet. (The color is a little off because these are "in process studio shots" under different lighting.)
















Stay tuned for the final image... as well as more in process studio shots of other work.

(PS... I just delivered two new paintings, including "Yin" below, to RedSky Gallery [www.redskygallery.com]:-)

Why Unison Pastels?

This 8x10" pastel I just completed is called "Yin". IF you follow my work, you know I love to paint with soft pastels... but I am in LOVE with Unison Pastels, which are distributed in USA by Jack Richeson & Co. Here's a link to see more... www.richesonart.com. (IF you are in the Charlotte area, Cheap Joe's Art Stuff's Charlotte store has a great selection of Unison individual pastels!)

Here is why I love these pastels... they are wider in the middle than the ends and they do NOT crumble (and not even the beautiful Sennelier hand made pastels consistently pass these tests)... and most importantly, they are soft and creamy... unlike any other pastel I've ever tried.

This is how good Unison pastels are... below is "Yin" in a later stage... you're seeing lots of layers of pastel on Colourfix paper (which doesn't hold as much pastel on the surface as the Richeson Pastel Surfaces). There is NO paper visible anymore.

Now, look at the completed painting with the red... the red color was a Unison Pastel that easily glided over the thick pastel surface. ANY pastel, other than Unison, would not have left a mark like this without a LOT of pressure which would have changed the painting. If you are a pastelist, you know that once there is a lot of pastel on the surface, usually you have to press down hard in order to get a color or mark to show. But, NOT with Unison Pastels.

Even if you can't afford Unison, if you love pastels, I'd recommend buying a couple of dark and light colors to see for yourself. This way at the end of your painting when you're laying in the darkest darks and lightest lights, your soft pastel will easily glide across the surface and you will be pleased. (Any artist knows that the quality of supplies will improve your work. It is the same with pastels!)

NOTE: You must carefully remove the paper label to use your individual pastel stick on the side as well as end (this gives you a variety of marks you can make with one stick).