PASTEL
TECHNIQUES HOME BUY ART! ART NOTES INDEX NEXT... As you look over my artwork, you may have noticed that I enjoy a rather bold use of colors and a wide range of techniques. However, there are some unifying themes to them all. For example, although we frequently refer to "pastel paintings," they are in fact, a cross between painting and drawing. Likewise, the Chinese ink brush paintings are often called "Chinese watercolor" but the style which I use most often is more like drawing than painting (there are other styles which do involve a techniques more similar to European watercolor or gauche painting, and these I occasionally use, also). PASTELS. By their nature, pastels usually have pure, but somewhat soft and pale colors. As a result, one can not rely heavily on gradations of gray and black to provide shading. Excessive use of grays and black in a pastel painting often results in a "muddy" appearance or indistinct colors. Instead, pastelists tend to make use of color contrasts, and by taking a more impressionist style, a style I whole-heartedly embrace. In true Impressionism, shading is done with almost no black black is used exclusively as a color instead, shading is expressed in cool colors, especially shades of blue. This is understood through "color theory," and is very noticeable in the portrait of | |
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