Leisure Painter - UK (2019-06)

http://www.painters-online.co.uk JUNE 2019 31

This can be overcome by deliberately

leaving holes in the foliage and adding

branches into the areas showing dark

against the sky behind.

There are no signs of people or animals

in the photo. People or animals can be

used to give a sense of scale in a painting,

however in this scene I don’t think it’s

needed. A few herdwick sheep could be

added in the foreground and, as I am

working in pastel, they can easily be

added later. If you are using watercolour,

you will need to plan ahead and mask

out the sheep with masking fluid.

I quite often add something into

the foreground of a painting to act as

a lead in, to take the viewer’s eye in

the direction I want them to follow.

This could be a stream, a pathway or

furrows in a field. My favourite way of

doing this is to include a puddle, with

the sky colours reflecting in the water,

and lovely dark muddy edges creating

a nice contrast of dark against light.

Pastel pencils and soft pastels

My usual way of painting with pastels

completely changed in 2013 with the

introduction of the super soft pastel

pencils from Caran d’Ache. This fantastic

range completely revolutionised my

whole approach to working in pastel.

Their softness allows me to blend colours

together to create subtle tones, layer on

layer, while achieving sharp detail in a

pastel painting, especially at and around

a focal point. The softness of the pastel

also meant I needed to change from the

slightly more textured surface I had been

working on to the finer tooth of Canson

Mi-Teintes (smooth side).

From the full set of 84 I introduced

my own set of 18 colours that I use most

of the time. I will be using a selection

of these to complete the finished painting

next month. When blending, if I want to

keep sharp edges on a mountainside or

building, or if I need to blend in a small

area, I use a No. 6 soft flat chisel Colour

Shaper like a paintbrush to manoeuvre

the colour around.

Finally, the pastel pencils need to be

sharpened carefully with a craft knife

or scalpel, as twisting them in a pencil

sharpener is likely to crack the pastel

within the casing.

For larger areas within the painting,

such as the sky, I prefer to use the side

of a few medium soft pastel sticks,

covering the surface of the paper with

broad strokes before blending the

colour into the tooth of the paper with

my fingers. My choice of soft pastels are

from Rembrandt. They are soft but not

too soft, they don’t crumble up in your

fingers, they are easy to blend without

filling the tooth too quickly and, even

more importantly, they are 100 per cent

non-toxic.

I use a piece of MDF backing board

covered with Fablon, as the board needs

to be smooth with no woodgrain and the

Fablon makes it easy to wipe clean. This

board is propped at an angle of around

45 degrees to allow any excess pastel

dust to fall while working. A folded piece

of newspaper under the bottom edge

catches excess pastel dust and can easily

be discarded once the painting is finished.

The pastel paper is then taped to the

board along the top and bottom edges.

Pastel sometimes has the reputation

of being a messy medium, but by using

a paper designed for pastel and by

propping your board at an angle, with

something to catch excess dust, the only

bit to get messy should be your fingers.

A handy pack of wet wipes and some

kitchen roll solves this issue. I hope

you enjoy this project. LP

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Paint along with LP

EXERCISE Tree foliage technique

Step 2 Add the black

Summer foliage blocks out the sunlight

so the inside of the tree is very dark.

Here I used the side of a small piece of

black medium hard Conté pastel with

light pressure, allowing the texture of the

paper to create a dark mass of foliage.

Notice how we can still see through this

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in places, especially around the top and

through the holes in the middle. The

bottom of this dark area needs to be

filled in to give a more solid appearance

so I used my fingertip to smudge and

blend just the bottom area of black until

we can’t see through it.

Step 3 Add the dark green

Using the side of the point of the 719 dark

phthalo green Caran d’Ache pastel pencil,

add dark green over the black where the

sunlight is catching the separate areas of

foliage. Leave the undersides dark and in

shadow and leave some areas of black as

the separation between areas of foliage.

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This photograph has a number of trees in full summer foliage, which can look a bit

daunting to the novice or even those with more experience. In pastel and pastel pencil,

however, with a little practice, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Step 1 Draw and add the sky

1 Using a small piece of Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper on the smooth side, lightly sketch

the shape of a few small trees using a black Biro or fine point fibre-tip pen. Do not use a pencil,

as the pastel will not adhere to it. Keep the trees relatively small; no more than 8cm tall.

2 Using the side of a pale blue medium soft pastel, stroke the colour into the paper, working

around the trees, but just coming slightly over the outside edges. Using your fingertips in small

circular motions with medium pressure, blend and smudge the colour so that it fills the tooth

of the paper and comes further into the trees. This area of colour over the trees will be thin,

but that’s just what we want.

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