Creating Art with glowing light and form..DISCOVER THE FUN OF PASTELS~~

ALOHA~ I was following a thread created by Hewey this past few days and He had asked me to share some of my experience using pastels.

I wrote a good deal already on that in the thread and promised to snap a few quick photos of stuff I have experimented with and how they were done. I don't use pastels much..but plan to do more because once you get the feel, they are really fun to use.

They feel "free" and they capture an "energy" in the lines and strokes that ya have to appreciate. Ya, your hands get dirty than a coal miner with a tick, but it takes me back to the good ol' days of being at the kitchen table in the summer, pastels and paper all over the place and my face and hands coated with the magical colored powders from these little wands called pastels. You will feel like a sourcerer in no time...I promise.

The pieces below are not new art...or anything to do with polynesian art. BUT..just think of how this could be applied!! Glowing torches and moody tiki art to die for!!! GO for it!!

I experimented with pastels more seriously about 10 years ago..that's where these are from. Some I did by taking the pastels and a tone paper called "canson" which you can buy at any major art store. The paper comes in large sheets..18" by 24" is a good size. It is heavy and has a great "tooth" to grab the pastel powder.

The thing that a toned paper does for you is give you an "environment" to draw on that is medium to dark. This means..you draw with light. Thomas Kinkade is not the only "painter of light". This ability to capture a glow in a painting was mastered hundreds of years ago by the Dutch realists and Many of the Master painters. It all has to do with understanding the theory of light...and that in order to make something "glow" it has to have something darker to glow from. This can be dramatic or subtle. Therefor, I never start with white paper or canvas. I create a neutral environment in which to turn on the lights and punch in my contrasts. Here is one of the first pieces I did...this was from imagination. Sorry..it has no title...just know I swear I was TOTALLY drug free when I did this!!! :)

Next..a detail close up....you can see how loose it is...and much of the areas where the pastel is not covering was just the color of the paper.

Another REAL close up...Again..the paper you can see and all the powder sitting on top.

The best part of pastels is that they are easy to transport, you can take them outside and you need no solvent unless you do the washes technique I described in Hewey's thread on pastels. I know some artist, including myself that mix acrylic painting with pastels.

If early in a painting I am not sure of a color or effect with light, I do a little test on the dry painting with pastels. If the color or whatever is not working for me..I wipe it away with a damp kitchen sponge. If I like it..I match the colors in acrylic..and paint right into the pastels..which mix with the binders in the paint and become permanent.

Pastel is also a lazy man's airbrush if used in an acrylic painting sparingly. I won't admit how many times I "cheated" a smoke or mist or glow effect in a finished acrylic painting with the help of just a little pastle scumbled into my paintbrush.

Below are a few more of a series of pastel studies on canson paper. These I did outside sitting on a rock or grass (maybe with a beer too). I brought a large drawing board with clips to secure the paper and a box of "nu-pastels". Another secret is to use "carbothello" pencils. They come in sets of colors and are basicly a form of pastel in pencil form. They work great to hit little details or sharpen a line.

OK!!! HAVE FUN!! Keep your hands off of Mom's walls when you are done!! I got my artistic hiney swung at more than once for my colored handprints left as evidence of my pastel adventures from the day!! ~~

This was done sitting on the set of "Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman" one day. Disney Imagineering would let us have paint out days to let us just unwind from the daily rigors of Theme park deign. Jane Seymore loved to talk art between shooting on the set and chatted as I did this one of the little school house. She paints in watercolor.

just a dry river bed up the road from me..HOT DAY!!.. went through more beer than pastels!

Detail..lots of paper showing through..it was a rust colored canson paper.

GOOD LUCK! ~~THOR

[ Edited by: THOR's on 2005-05-16 13:55 ]

[ Edited by: THOR's on 2005-05-16 15:41 ]

[ Edited by: THOR's on 2005-05-16 15:52 ]

Once again a very informative and helpful post.

And once again that art blows me away. I think I need a little more practice yet... You capture a really great mood in your pics - have you done anything with like a badass feel? Probably Pele's Promise (house on top of lava, where it goes into the ocean), would be the closest I have seen. I am thinking like full-on mysterious/evil feel.

Apparently I have started a mini pastel revolution. Have a go - whether it be pastel art or something else, have a go and make some tiki art. Its not about talent, its about having fun!

Thanks Hewey!!! You said it perfectly! ! Have fun!! I have done LOT's of dark "badass" art..someday will share.

~~ Aloha~

Thanks Hewey!!! You said it perfectly! ! Have fun!! I have done LOT's of dark "badass" art..someday will share.

~~ Aloha~

Damn!!! You can really capture a scene. The trees with the hanging moss is really cool. Soft blues, almost as if illuminated by moonlight.

Wow!

yes...Yes! Now that I would like to see. Please share. @;-)

Rae

On 2005-05-16 16:06, THOR's wrote:
I have done LOT's of dark "badass" art..someday will share.