Leisure Painter — June 2017

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For pastel portraits and figure paintings,

I work on either the smooth side of

Canson Mi-Tientes gris fumée(smokey-

grey) pastel paper or Colourfix soft

umber, a primer incorporating a fine

texturing element, which can be bought

either ready-printed on cartridge paper

or in 250ml jars. Other colours are

available and can be mixed to your

personal preference.

I prefer to prime my own material

and apply three diluted coats to

mountboard with a small foam emulsion

roller. This produces a fine sandpaper-

like surface, which can, in turn, be

lightly sanded. The primer, surprisingly,

adheres to almost any material

(including clothes). Darcie(see page 26

and next month’s demonstration) was

painted on white mountboard primed

with Colourfix soft umber. The soft

umber and the Canson paper both

provide a warm, neutral grey-brown

surface, which is a very sympathetic

base for shadowed skin tones while

offering adequate contrast to light and

dark areas of a painting.

Accuracy is key

I begin a pastel portrait by sketching

the structure of the head on thin layout

paper. The image will eventually be

transferred to the painting’s final support

and this first drawing sorts out the

problems and avoids excessive handling,

erasing and correcting on the final

support’s pristine surface, and I still

have the ‘master’ drawing for repeat use.

Initially, everything can and should

be simplified, be it a portrait, figure

or complicated landscape composition.

An essential start to any realistic

painting, especially if you are aiming

for a true likeness, must be to establish

accurately the proportions and

relationships of basic shapes. So

I begin with a simple drawing based

on the egg shape of a head at, say,

a three-quarter position. I then draw

a centre line over the top of the head

and down the face. This shows the

inclination of the head and how far

it is rotated from a frontal view. I add

parallel lines across the eyes and mouth.

Again these confirm the tilt of the head

and must be carefully judged where

those features are positioned within

the depth of the head. It is a common

misconception that the eyes are at a

halfway point and drawing students are

often amazed to discover, when using

the pencil-and-thumbnail method of

measuring, that unless their subject is a

Neanderthal, the eyes are usually almost

three-fifths of the way down the head.

This can be checked on the portrait of

Melanie (right). It is important to be

aware of these variations.

In the painting of Darcie, her head

is tilted slightly backwards so that we

are, in effect, looking upwards at her

face and this changes the apparent

position of her eyes within the depth of

her head. When measuring from the top

http://www.painters-online.co.uk JUNE 2017 25

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Pastel

Melanie, oil on canvas, 44x25in. (112x64cm). The gathered folds and diamanté motif

of the ivory silk evening dress were quite demanding in this commissioned life-size oil

painting. I included items that were relevant to the clients: the wedding pictures and

mementoes of an African trip. I also added the green glass vase for some much-needed

colour and to complement the colour of the pale green wall.

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