Pastel Journal - USA (2019-09)

Bright Ideas

solutions(above).Someweregood,

someweren’t,buttheyallopened

a doortoexperimentationand

creativity.Mystudentstoldmethey

experiencedthesamementallibera-

tionthatI had.Why?

1.Fearlessness.Wedidn’thave

anattachmenttoa specificoutcome.

2.Open-endedsolutions.We

gainedconfidence,realizingthat

therewasanendlesssupplyofsolu-

tionstoeachvisualproblem.

3.Clearconceptofdirection.

Wequicklyunderstoodwhichpicto-

rialelementsneededtoberetained

andwhichwewerefreetointerpret

andchange.

4.Experimentation.Wefound

thatweweren’tworking;wewere

playingandhavingfun.

These nine still life experimentations originated

from the still life setup on page 61. I explored:

A) a full-color approach;

B) a grayscale value study;

C) a monochromatic study in pink;

D) analogous colors in blue and green;

E) shadow and highlights on a brown field;

F) pink highlights only on a black field;

G) blue midtones;

H) a monochromatic study in violet; and

I) a red-violet on blue-green field (study

in complements)

AB C

DE F

GHI

62 Pastel Journal OCTOBER 2019