This exercise in values is from the online workshop for beginning pastel painters.
Value Exercise
Pastels
Fruit Study
This fruit study was my take on an exercise from Marla Baggetta’s “Making Your Mark” online workshop.
I used Fabriano Ingres pastel paper — one of the papers in the sampler I bought from Jackson’s Art — and am dissatisfied with the vertical lines in the paper.
Espresso Study
Today I painted my espresso cup.
What I like is my color choices: I think they closely resemble the cup in “life”. I’m especially happy with the crema color(s). I’m somewhat pleased with the actual drawing of the cup. I am least pleased with my mark-making, especially with regard to the crema. Perhaps I would be better off using NuPastels or even pastel pencils to render the detail more finely.
Or, be more impressionistic in my painting, and use blurry strokes instead of trying to match the reference so closely.
Blue Pear
This study was done on Colorfix Smooth “Blue Haze” paper.
Playing with Color — Apple
I don’t recall what pastel paper I used; the pastels here are mostly Blick Artist’s Soft Pastels (half sticks) that are, obviously, brand-new. I had a lot of difficulty laying down color in the way I wanted!
Afterwards, on one of Marla Baggetta’s YouTube demos in which she uses Rembrandt pastels, she mentions that the pastels are new, and she gently abraded them against the sanded paper she was using.
I have some Rembrandt half-stick pastels as well as Blick Artists pastels; they seem similar in look and feel to me. So, I used some scraps of fine sandpaper to abrade some of my Blick pastels. I hope that will help in my next painting!
Signed up for Pastel painting lessons with Marla
Today I signed up for Marla Baggetta’s “Pastels for the Serious Beginner” online, work-at-your-own-pace class. I’m definitely a beginner, and I’m serious to finally get busy using some of the pastels I have, in addition to my daily drawing.
While my ultimate goal is to paint portraits and human figures, I like Marla’s work, and have watched a few of her demos on YouTube.
Eye Study
I have a set of Derwent pastel pencils (36-count tin), and am taking Phil Davies’ “Portraits in Pastel Pencil” class on arttutor.com. I was less interested in exactly matching the reference photo than I was in determining the best 10 colors to use. (We’re limited to a palette of ten, per the instructor, and he uses Faber-Castell Pitt pastel pencils.)
The first drawing was done on Rembrandt Talens pastel paper, and I dislike the look of the honeycomb hatched paper. Utterly ruins the drawing for me! The other paper used was Canson Mi-Tientes (smooth side). In both cases, a tinted gray paper was used.
Working with Pastels and Charcoal
I’ve been taking Rebecca de Mondenca’s pastel classes on arttutor.com, and this is some of my initial work from her class “A Beginner’s Guide to Pastels”.
I find I don’t care for the pastel paper that has the honeycomb look, although it can hold more pastel layering, given the “tooth” of the paper.
Most of these are from using the Dick Blick Artist’s Pastels (60 set), but the (finger) blended blues are Sennelier Landscape (30 set) pastels.
BetterLateThanNeverArt 