“Pastels for Life”

Author: Pauline Adair - Australian Artist

Note: This painting won the Pastel Award at the 2006 Gympie Gold Rush Annual Art Exhibition.

For this Soft Pastel Demonstration I am using a double sheet of Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper, in a warm grey colour. I prefer to work on the smooth side of this, but I know many pastelists who choose the textured side. The smooth side still has a good tooth which suits my application.

The model is Sophie…. a favourite of mine, and I am working from a photo as it will probably take me several days to complete this to my satisfaction.

Here is the reference photo, which I cropped to achieve a more close up and intimate feel in the
painting.

(The photograph below contains tasteful nudity. Click image to reveal)

Sophie’s Gallery

I’m starting with a willow charcoal drawing…. I like the willow because I can just manipulate it with the heel of my hand… wiping it off easily if I want to adjust the drawing. After each couple of strokes I step back to view it as a whole, trying not to get bogged down to much in the detail of any one area.

I’m happy with the start now, I can begin to add some colour.

I’m adding some shading here, using a deep purple….. I really want to just colour the paper at this stage and to mark where the accents will be…. bones beneath the skin, the darkest shadows, etc. This is still at the drawing stage…. not the painting stage.

Just getting a feel for the lights now, finding where the light falls on her body from the one light source. All those planes must be facing the light to create the illusion.

The shadows need warming up…..I’m putting a couple of warm skin tones in over the purple, still working loosely.

I call them ‘hot spots’….where I see the warmest of the skin colours…. in the creases, on the elbows, lips, cheeks. Nothing is set in concrete at this stage…. I’m still feeling my way around…..tentatively!

Sophie has red hair…. so while I have the red in my hand….in that goes too!

I’m strongly leaning toward a dark background....

Please follow this link to view the rest of this pastel drawing lesson...