Pastel Palette

This will be the first of a series on working with chalk pastels.
After teaching pastels over the past 7 years, I have come to find that Nu Pastels 96 piece set is the best beginning palette with which to work. Here is why.
1. The colors are fairly neutral. What that means is that they are purer hues not mixes.
2. The hues are intense. Colors can always be greyed. But a greyed hue can not be made more intense.
3. Color range is good.
4. Individual sticks can be replaced. This is critical. Never buy a set unless individual sticks can be replaced. You will find there are some sticks you use far more than others.
5. This set is relatively inexpensive.
6. The sticks are harder and so one is more apt to practice different pressures when painting.
7. The edges help with final details.
Once you begin collecting pastels, think about keeping a journal recording brand, name/number and color swatch of the stick. Put wax paper between the swatch papers to keep pastel from rubbing off on other paper. By recording this you will be freer to take of hindering paper wrappers and breaking pastel sticks to suit your purposes.
After playing with a beginning palette exploring what you can and can not achieve with the colors, there will come a time when frustration sets in because some darks and lights will not be able to be achieved. Then it will be time to start adding stick by stick to your palette.
There are many brands and each has distinct properties both in regards to texture as well as color.
Color selection is so personal. There is of course individual taste, but also the location where one is painting. One brands greens, I find are too chalky for the coast of Maine. I think they would be perfect if I lived in southern France however.
What I will cover in the next entry will be pictures of various brands and descriptions of texture and color. Hopefully including enough information for folks to make selections according to individual need and interest.
PAPERS
There are many kinds of paper as well. Visit Dakota Arts for good generic descriptions. I write here my observations.
1.Canson is well known and readily available in local stores. It tends to have a regular texture which comes through even well layered painting. Some of the colors have dimples which are very hard to fill.However, if painting on a colored surface is of interest, this product offers a wide range.
2. Sennelier makes a textured surface with a variety of tones. However this surface is not waterproof. If it gets wet the texture comes off. I use this paper if I am combining pastel with gold leaf.
3. Wallis is my personal favorite. It has an excellent tooth onto which I can get 12-15 layers. When layering color, I do not choose a color that is the local color, I choose 10-15 colors which will create the local color. This results in a physical as well as visual depth. This paper is waterproof.
4. There is a new sanded paper out but I have had trouble acquiring it because it is always sold out! The company sent samples-- now why didnt I think of that for all the papers??

5. There is a new product called Pastel Mat. I have tried several paintings on this surface. It is very smooth but takes multiple layers but not as many as Wallis. Wallis is still a favorite for portraits because the tooth is deep but does not impose itself on the painting visual results.

Questions from Tuesday's Workshop

 

Letting pigments mix in water on the paper keep colors vibrant.

FirsT 

The first two weeks in August are always set aside for the Schoodic Arts Festival for All. The activity on the peninsula as folks hustle to class, brown bag lunches with free demonstrations and evening performances brings our quiet neck of the shore alive. I have been teaching for this marvelous organization for 9 years now and seven of those have been in my gallery. It is a time of- as Goethe said - being out amongst the activity of humanity in order to hone vision and insights so that later I retreat to quiet to create. Students through their eagerness to make connections and understand both the physical world and how to represent, it teach me new ways of perceiving as well demand of me articulation of intuited techniques.

    Here is the curriculum for this week’s class. At the end will be answers to some of the poignant questions raised as we worked together

First Colors:

  Cobalt Blue, Rose Madder, Aurelian Yellow

Then add:

Opera

STEP I:  Playing ;

We will begin by playing with the 3 colors. When using these pigments we have a wealth colors we can create through understanding all the variables. These variables include:

1. Which pigment begins the mixture

2. Ratio of pigments

3. How water is added

    Is pigment first put on paper

                                                                                               

    Is water first placed on the paper ( and how) and then pigment added?

4. Are pigments mixed on the palette or on the paper

5. How is a mixture made warmer or cooler

6. Ratio of pigment to water

7. How is pigment made denser

8. What happens each time the brush is moved in the mixture

9. How many ways can pigment be added to water

10. What happens when moving pigment and water with brush, with moving paper

11. Adding color while first color is still wet

12 Adding color on top of  a color which has dried.

All these methods when understood help make watercolor colorful especially when using the listed pigments.

STEP II Being the Scientist

Now we will make a color chart. Begin with a color make swatches in the form of a ‘T’ The stem of the ‘T’ is the root color. Take each of the other colors for the top bar of the T mixing with the root color. Where the stem meets the bar will be a mixture of all 3 colors.

This work can go in your sketchbook for reference when working. After painting with these colors for awhile ‘feeling’ what they can do will be come second nature.

Now try a simple color wheel. What color(s) do you think are not achievable with these pigments?

STEP III Comparing

Next work on placing colors next to each other. A painting is essentially colors next to each other carving out objects by delineating planes.

1. Make a mixture then alter it ever so slightly. Paint both mixture on your paper. Can you see subtle differences?

2. Make a mixture that is very high key notice its character when painting next to white.

3. How many different whites can be made?

4. What darks can be mixed?

5. Mix a color then try to push it warmer then cooler what does this do?

6. Mix neutral gray!

7. Now push it more towards purple. Paint yellow beside it on one side  then orange on the other…

STEP IV PAINTING

Plan a painting. Try doing something out the window or a scene with which you are very familiar. Think about what you have discovered about the properties of watercolor. What are those distinct characteristics that w/c can achieve that no other medium can do? What type of picture/story would be told best with w/c?

So Question #1- Using and Controlling edges:Edges- not lines- are an important 'tool' if you will, for the artist. A hard edge draws the eye a soft edge lets the eye slide by which in turn also lets the eye and brain register a volume in stead of a completed plane. For example, soft edges are critical  when painting human forms in order for the eye to read a volume. When painting in watercolor there are many ways to achieve soft edges. 

     A.Dip your brush in water or a color. Take out some of the moisture from the BASE of the brush not the tip. Then dip the tip in more pigment. Hold the brush angling the tip toward the side a hard edge is desired and plop the base down letting water out of the well onto the paper. Drag the brush.

     B. Put paint down then have water in the tip and touch it along the edge of where the paint is. Encourage the paint to bleed into the water. ( You can also do this with another color instead of water. Be careful not to muck around with the brush too much because the mixture of the two colors will be come flat.)

     C. Put   stroke of water on the paper. Dip tip of brush in rich pigment and touch it to the edge of the water stroke. Let water move pigment down.

With all of these techniques, critical is amount of liquid in brush and on the paper. Constantly adjust these proportions. Too much water dilutes the pigment resulting in lighter higher key marks. Play with how much water is needed to achieve the affect you want. 

Remember there is no right or wrong. There is being able to achieve what you want  to achieve. Make results a CHOICE not a result because it only what you can do.

 

Note the edges at the top and base of the mountains.

Question #2: How do I avoid mud?

Well first step in avoiding mud is to identify why it is getting made! There are many habits in watercolor which create mud - here are some I have been able to identify

a. Mucking around too much in multiple colors with the brush. Let the water move pigment as much as possible rather than the brush because the brush will more thoroughly mix pigments which lead to flat colors. A brush will also keep depositing more water - especially a sable brush- which of course dilutes color.

b. Know pigment content- for example French Ult has red in it which of course, will make a less brilliant green. Usually a straight green is warmed up with a touch of red but it is easier to control degrees if you determine the type and amount of red.

c. Chose colors relative to each other! A color might be absolutely beautiful next to one color and become utterly dead next to another. If you have a dead color in a work, before you try changing it cover up surrounding colors to determine what is causing the problem. (This is true with any part of a painting not working. It may not have anything to do with the area that looks wrong  but with a 'supporting' role part. 

Question #3. How do I maximize the fact that I am using a brush?

Part of any skill set is learning inside and out how to use the materials of the trade. For watercolorists the brush is a critical tool. It has one clear distinct use- to get pigment and water to the paper. However, there are so many ways to achieve this. And of course, the brush is used to effect how the pigment and water land on the paper. 

Make sure you investigate all the actual physical attributes of the brush. While we are all creative and we do this to express that creativity, there are actual physical realities with which we must work. That is, at least for me, much of the fun! The brush sucks up and releases when pressed, moisture. How much depends on the individual tool. Play with your brushes learn them inside out so that it becomes part of your hand. A brush has width and depth. Use both! We tend to rely on the tip and if we apply the base to the paper it follows the tip. This is not the same stroke as letting the base travel perpendicular to the tip. Brushes can be big enough to carry more than one color. (This is true in any medium) Varying the amount of brush you apply to the paper as you move it around varies the width and moisture of the stroke. Another valuable tool to depict calligraphic lines.

PLAY PLAY PLAY  PLAY

 

Colo