Learning From the Master: Degas

Degas is famous for his pastels of Ballet Dancers, Jockeys and Landscapes.He was a prolific artist producing more than 1500 drawing and pastel paintings in his life. The immediacy of the pastels brilliant hues are undiminished by time even though they were painted in the 1880s. A hundred years later two Degas pastel paintings sold for $3,000,000 each.

Degas worked in many layers of soft pastel which was particularly successful in the billowy flowing skirts of the ballerinas. He used fixatives between the many layers of pastel to prevent smearing work on lower layers and add texture through crosshatching. He used handmade pastels from a Parisian shop. Following is a link to an interesting article about that shop today: http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-31814020080207

As Degas aged and his sight began to fail, he worked more frequently in pastel and eventually turned to sculpture. His pastels of figures began to emphasize form with brilliant colors and outlines drawn repeatedly in dark colors.

How to Apply Pastel

Applying pastel can be accomplished by several techniques. How you chose to apply the pastel and the paper support base effects the final painting.We can learn a great deal by studying the working methods of successful pastel artists.

I am enclosing a link to an informative video on applying pastels. Dick Ensing discusses and demonstrates how to apply pastel and use the paper support to the best advantage. He shows different techniques to apply the pastel and how to avoid "mud" by overmixing.
http://www.jerrysartarama.com//videoApplication/videoLesson.html?title=Dick Ensing - "Applying Pastels"&id=124&res=lowRes&catTitle=Medium&subTitle=Pastels&cat=3&sub=9

Fall Leaves

The leaves are changing color quickly with the cooler evenings. Fall is a time of brilliant leaf colors contrasted against the blue sky or remaining green leaves.

This is a good time to explore complementary colors. In autumn, nature displays a magnificent show of color and contrast.

Opposite shades across the color wheel really pop when placed next to each other adding drama to a pastel painting.

I am including a photo of a butterfly I shot that demonstrates the complementary colors orange, red and across the color wheel blue.The contrast makes for a striking photo.

A simple project involves choosing a fall leaf or two and painting a pastel picture of the leaves contrasting against a brilliant blue background. The following links leads you through this project. I hope you enjoy it.
http://www.teachartathome.com/PastelFallleaves.html

Where to Shop for Pastels

My favorite art store is Mona Lisa in Calgary. They have a wide supply of pastels and a huge selection of papers. It is always an adventure to shop there. It is one of my favorite places to wile away time especially if I have a few dollars to invest in supplies. My purchases are always wrapped securely and the staff is very knowledgable. http://www.monalisa-artmat.com/store.htm 

Online there are many excellent art suppliers. http://www.dakotapastels.com/pages/orderingonline.aspx http://www.cheapjoes.com/art-supplies/23343_pastel-supplies.asp For premium buttery soft pastels that are handmade contact http://www.terryludwig.com/policies.html

For a beginning pastel artist I would advise buying a set of pastels in a range of colors.  Later you can chose individual sticks to fill any colors you need. A pad of pastel paper and some sheets of rough watercolor paper would give you a starting supply of paper.

Personally, I have a wide range of soft pastels, conte (hard pastel) sticks in a landscape and a portrait set and also a set of basic pastel pencils. I have on hand watercolor rough paper, low tooth pastel paper in a range of colors, velor paper, suede board and sanded paper. I use a large drawing board to clip my paper to when working. I use q-tips, paper towels and fingers for blending. I use two types of fixatives; the first is a workable fixative spray I use between layers of pastels and the second is a final fixative spray I use when a work is finished.

Plein Air Painting

Photo of Red Rock Canyon, Waterton Park, Alberta

While at Red Rock Canyon I set up a camp table, chair and spread out my pastels. I did a live plein air pastel landscape. Over several hours I worked while various visitors came by to see my work. People are very interested to see an artist working live in location. I even had an offer to buy this incomplete piece but was unable to meet up with the visitors later in the park to exchange information.

I chose a rust colored pastel paper to work on and clipped it to large drawing board. I used soft pastel to work the basic shapes and conte sticks when I began to paint finer detail.

Over time the sun's position shifted, clouds blew past and then a fine drizzle began so I packed up my supplies. I took several reference photos so that I could complete the landscape at home.

Plein Air Pastel Landscape

This photo of the pastel landscape is washed out in the sky from the camera flash. It is obvious that I need to work more blues into the stream and different shades of green and blue into the trees. Also the bank on the left needs some adjustments to appear steeper and the railings need to diminish as they retreat for proper perspective.

I will post a completed painting at a later date.

Pastel Information

When you begin to explore pastel work  it is good to have a source of information and inspiration. The Pastel Journal is a full color magazine available by subscription. To get an idea of what it involves click on the following link.http://www.artistsnetwork.com/pasteljournal/

The Pastel Bible is an excellent reference book covering techniques and including tutorials. http://www.amazon.com/Pastel-Artists-Bible-essential-practicing/dp/0785820841/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253644723&sr=1-3#

At Creative Spotlite there are many demos and tutorials on working with pastels.  http://www.creativespotlite.com/pastel-lessons.htm

I hope you enjoy looking through these sites and finding ways to be inspired and guided in your pastel work.

Pastel Papers

Pastels can be used effectively on many types of paper ranging from watercolor paper to papers made especially for pastel work. Most have some kind of tooth or texture to allow the pastel to adhere to the paper. That texture can vary from barely perceptible to the heavily textured sanded boards. For a very soft effect allowing many layers of pastel velor paper or even textured suede board can be used as a base. Sanded paper allows for layering of pigments along with fine detail from harder pastels.

For a longer article on pastel paper types and colors click on the following link.
http://www.how-to-draw-and-paint.com/pastel-paper.html

An Introduction to Pastel Types

 Pastels come in many forms from buttery soft chalk pastel to harder conte pastel and even more precise pastel pencils. Almost an entirely different art form is bright, thick oil pastels. Each of these pastel types give a different appearance and feel when applied to paper. Knowing the differences and how to interchange the use of these pastels makes for a more effective artist.

 Click on the following link to an article introducing pastels. http://www.artinstructionblog.com/an-introduction-to-drawing-and-painting-with-pastels

 Following is an excellent video of Daniel E. Greene picking pastels for portraiture. He describes and shows many different types and brands of pastels and explains how they differ from each other. He explains how pastels are made and the difference from using pastels compared to oil painting.
http://www.jerrysartarama.com//videoApplication/videoLesson.html?title=Daniel E. Greene - "Pastel Portrait: Picking Pastels"&id=425&res=lowRes&catTitle=Medium&subTitle=Pastels&cat=3&sub=9

As you have learned from the video pastels come in a range of types and tints. It can take time to acquire a nice range of colours and strength. Pastels being pure pigment allows an artist to choose a stick and immediately begin to paint in the exact hue they desire. This can be very liberating to an artist and is one of the great advantages of the pastel medium.