Artist's Palette - AU (2020-03)

demonstration

Pastels

Come with e

A pastellist in South Africa has applied her significant pastel skills to this

calm and peaceful seascape complete with foliage carpeted sand dunes.

By Constance Robertson

MATERIALS

• Arches Pastel and Fusain
  Laid Paper, 29.7 x 42 cm,
  Ingres MBM, 130gsm.


• Charcoal.


• Schmincke Pastels: White; Light
  Green; Grey Blue 1; Light Ochre;
  Greenish Grey; Greenish Umber;
  Olive Ochre Deep; Permanent
  Red; Carmine Red; Madder Lake;
  Gold Ochre; Manganese Violet.


• Rembrandt Olive Green
  and Green Earth.


• Sennelier Pastels: 133 Prussian
  Blue; 298 Light Yellow.


• Unison Pastels: 44; A29;
  BV11; BV9; BG6; BG2;
  various other Blues.


• Winsor & Newton Natural
  Sienna and Winsor Yellow.
  FINAL STEP • Faber-Castell Art Eraser.

STEP ONE

Because this is a place that I love

and know well, I did not use a

photograph to provide inspiration ...

only my memory. I chose not to paint

in the open air, when midsummer

temperatures were in the late 30s and

the plant life was seeminglydead.

In South Africa,as in Australia,

painting outside can be unwise

due to serious ozone depletion.

Using a piece of charcoal

approximately 3cm long on its edge, I

dragged a centimetre line along each

of the four sides of the paper, thus

ensuring that there was enough space

provided for framing purposes later.

Applyingthe ‘ThirdsRule’, I made

small charcoalmarks horizontally

and vertically, and added light marks

where I thought the centres of the paper

were. I did not use any rigid means of

measuring this. The only time I ever

use a ruler to measure my work is when

I draw the horizon of an ocean – which

must always be straight (no matter what

your eye or the camera tells you).

Still using the charcoal’sedge, not

its point, I drew a rough sketch of

where my shoreline was and where