Autumn Beauty
This peaceful country scene resplendent with autumn tones was chosen to demonstrate the artist’s mastery of pastels.
STEP ONE
I had started another painting on this sheet of Terracotta Colourfix, and decided to abandon it. After tapping and brushing off most of the existing pastel, I washed the paper with a brush lightly loaded with water; and blended some of the remaining pastel. The main shapes were next placed in with hard and semi-soft pastels. After checking the composition, I decided that the buildings were too large – so I moved them further back into the painting, allowing for a better lead-in for the viewer.
Starting with the sky and moving down the paper, I blocked in the main features – placing the lightest tones where needed so they remained fresh. At this stage I used two mid blues, one light blue and a touch of pink for the sky; and blended lightly. For the buildings, tree foliage and ground, I used a variety of reds, oranges,
Sienna and yellow along with a purple/red; mid, dark and light tone blues; a mauve; and two greens.
I tape my paper to the backing board so there is a reasonable border around the work. The framer thanks me for this! Always start at the top of the paper, as the pastel will fall down the sheet. Tap the back of the paper occasionally (preferably outside) to ensure you have the cleanest possible base to work on.
STEP TWO
Working lightly and staying with the same tones, I defined the buildings and placed the tree trunks in position. Using dark and mid tone purples, I added shadows and the grassed area behind the trees.
I remained light-handed and loose at this stage – so alterations, deletions or additions could still be handled easily. Heavy strokes or too much blending of the pastel at this stage will fill the ‘tooth’ of the paper and will not allow further layers of pastel to adhere adequately. If not overloaded too early, the paper can hold as many as ten layers of pastel without it skidding over the surface.
STEP THREE
Here I aimed to start bringing the painting together using warm and cool tones in the foreground. Shadows were a mix of purples, blues and deep reds. The grass behind the tree was now extended slightly and the darks behind the main tree were deepened with a little more purple, deep red and green.
By not isolating one element, and remaining with the same palette, your painting is more likely to be pleasing to the eye.
STEP FOUR
The fence was now established to act as a lead-in, so hopefully the eye would travel through the painting in a pleasing way. Working all over the painting now, I brought the foreground to the bottom of the sheet, refined the main tree form and indicated the small bush along the fence line. A few well placed strokes indicated branches of the main tree. Although there were strong contrasts, unity was achieved here with all elements leading into one another … there was no one feature that didn’t meet another. A good combination of vertical and horizontal shapes also helped balance the painting.