Guimet, and today, French ultra-
marine blue—sometimes the word
“French” is omitted—is common.
(It’s actually richer in appearance
than natural ultramarine blue
because its particle size is smaller.)
Since then, many organic (carbon-
based) pigments have been invented,
including indanthrone blue (1901)
and phthalo blue (1928).
Blue in Action
Although it’s common with oil paints
and other liquid media to talk about
specific pigments, it’s more difficult
when it comes to pastels, as we often
don’t know what components are
used in a particular stick. Instead,
it’s more useful to talk about pastel
color qualities: value, temperature,
chroma and hue. There are rich,
dark blues the color of the sky at the
zenith on a winter’s day; pale, light
blues that seem hardly blue at all but
almost a neutral gray; greenish-blues
and violet-blues; and blues that are
Pastel etc...
“Girault Pastels are absolutelynecessaryfor
a pastelist’s palette. Whether you use themontheirtipsfor
drawing, or along their sides for broad painterlystrokes,
they are a willing partner. In every stageofpainting,
they allow the artist utmost control of texture,detail,and
markmaking. Girault also play well withotherpastels,and
even on top of several layers of softer pasteltheyleavetheir
mark. Th eir color range is extensive frombrightstothemost
lovely shades of neutrals. Girault Pastelsareanimportant
part of every painting I produce, and I highlyrecommend
them.” http://www.lizhaywoodsullivan.com
Set Available at:Liz “NecessaryGirault”
,MMLJ[P]LS`JVSSLJ[ZHUK ÄS[LYZ K\Z[Z
HUK ZVS]LU[ZH[ `V\Y LHZLS
^^^HY[PZ[ZHPYJVT207-945-6563
AYtist’sAPY
Thebeststudioaircleaningsystem
Call Alan
for detailsThe greenish-blues
of the reflected,
shadowed trees
in Oak Creek Blues
(9x12) are made richer
by the chunks of
orange in the sunlit
creek bottom. I used
a rich blue-violet in
the deepest shadows
on the far side of the
creek to punch up
the contrast with
the orange.perfect for the design on a Ming vase.
For the pastel painter, there seems to
be no end of blues.
For landscapes, a dark violet-blue
works best for the sky overhead,
where typically the blue is deeper and
redder. A greenish-blue works well
for lighter passages of sky closer to
the horizon. You can create beauti-
ful grays by taking a violet-blue
and scumbling it over its near-com-
plements, orange and yellow, or bytaking a greenish-blue and using
the same approach over its near-
complements, red and orange.
Whenever I’m trying to create grays,
I prefer to use near-complements,
as they have less of a tendency to
create mud than direct complements
and make for a richer gray. It’s also
important to use pastels of the same
value when creating grays.
For portrait and figural work, I like
to use blues to help model form. BlueArtistsNetwork.com 19