Friday, 12 September 2014

Discovering Underpainting for Pastels - Part 2

Just realised there was someone else I enjoyed watching on YouTube - so here is part 2:

Another lady I have found who does loose watery underpaintings for her pastel work is an Australian lady called Leesa Padget. I found a few videos on YouTube done by her. This was really useful, as you can see just how dribbly she gets the pastel when she wets it. The link to the one I found really useful is here : Leesa Padget 
She blocks out colour with soft pastel on her underpainting, but then wets all of it with alcohol. I asked her, on her YouTube site, a question about using the alcohol:
Leesa - great video, thank you. I occasionally use pastel and have heard of using alcohol for the underpainting, but never quite understood how to do it. Watching your video I think I can attempt this technique. I assumed that one washed the brush out each time one changed to a different area of colour, but you go from light to dark with the same pot - and also use this technique to "set" some pastel later on.

Her reply was this:
Hi Lynn, thanks for the lovely comment. As for the alcohol, you can reuse the same jar for quite a few paintings, the pastel particles will settle to the bottom after a while and as long as you don't disturb them the top part will be clean.

Great to know this, as I would have thought it could have been a pain if you had to wash out the brush every time - and although I have been able to obtain rubbing alcohol online, I haven't found it locally, so I want it to last as long as possible!

I am going to have to get upstairs and try some of these techniques. Only problem is that I can't fit a full size solid easel in my studio, as it is in the eaves and the roof is extremely low. For the underpainting techniques done by the artists mentioned on this and the previous blog, you need to have the paper/board upright, to encourage dribbles. However, I have just invested in a table one - not as brilliant, as I think standing up to do this technique frees you up, but needs must....

The only other thing coming up for me in the near future is a couple of sessions with an artist over near Ely, who I had conversed with on Facebook, but also went to her Open Studios in the summer. We have organised a couple of private workshops together - so that I can learn how to use oil pastels. She does amazing landscapes in just this medium and I would really like to know more about them. I have had some (both the basic Pentel and also the Sennelier ones) for a while, but never really used them to any great effect. Watch this space....

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