My aim last summer was to choose painting subjects based on what would challenge me and also to experiment with painting sunlight. Luckily we had a sunny summer here in Northern Ireland which is rare so I spent the whole time drawing, painting and photographing sunlight and how it plays on objects.
This piece was done as an exercise in painting light, an experiment in getting small detail in pastel, and also as a fun challenge painting several things that are tricky like brickwork for example. For too long my work revolved around one main subject and my background painting skills were limited. It’s something I hear all the time from other artists too and there’s only one way to change that…try painting everything until it gets better!
So here is my progress for a painting I called ‘Summertime’
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| ‘Summertime’ Pastel on velour 14″x18″ |
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| As always I like to draw out my image pretty accurately so I’m not wasting the tooth on the paper and filling it up with pastel on mistakes! I drew this out on a sheet of cartridge sketching paper, covered the back with dark pastel, taped this to my velour and transferred it on. I’ve then neatened up some of the lines with pastel pencil. |
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| Working from the background forwards and the top down. This is perhaps a strange way to work a painting but I find it helps me be able to lean on my paper as I work and not smudge what I’ve done. It means I have to see the values in isolation, ie I’m not comparing them to their surrounding colours as I go. Sometimes I do go back and adjust colours at the end if they don’t sit right within the painting. |
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| This picture is all about that ray of light against the cool shadow areas. To do the bricks I rougly painted in the cement colours and laid the bricks on top. I’ve used pastel pencils and a paper stump with a good point to neaten the edges. Whilst pastels are quite blunt objects, you can shape it on the paper with both your fingers and little tools with points. |
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| The pastel pencils have come in very useful for all the railings and small lines but there is no comparison to the strength of colour you get from a big soft pastel. So when I’m using my Unisons I’m constantly looking for sharp edges or breaking them in half for this purpose. I use them down to crumb size as the smaller the pastel the more uses I have for it! |
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| You can see with the dress here, I even work the background of fabrics before adding a pattern. I’m using bluey purple shades for the cool tones of the skin and creating contrast with light yellows in the highlighted areas. I find adding a little line of a vibrant orange or red around certain areas really makes it glow like in sunlight. |
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| Here’s a close up detail |
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| ‘Summertime’ framed beautifully by my framer who knows just how to handle pastels. Always look for a framer who really knows their trade when getting pastels framed as they are tricky but a good framer will be worth the cost! |