I taught a one-day Introduction to Pastel workshop for the Sedona Art Center on Saturday. It was a great class, and everyone had a good time. I did two demonstrations to illustrate a couple of basic approaches to painting in pastel. In the first, I painted with soft pastel on steel-grey Canson paper. This is a very direct approach without any underpainting, and it's about as close to drawing as you can get. Pastel is a wonderful transition medium to get you from drawing, which is something we've all done in grade school, to real painting. Beginners really enjoy this.
In the second method, I created an underpainting on sanded paper with pastel that I then "scrubbed in" with rubbing alcohol. This establishes a good foundation of value and color. Once it dried, I finished with more pastel. This more advanced method is very much like painting - you even use a brush to create textures and brush strokes in the underpainting stage.
The first painting is the dry technique, and the second is the wet technique. (Neither painting is really finished at this point; they are just illustrative sketches.)
Michael Chesley Johnson PSA MPAC PSNM
www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com
1 comment:
I attended this class and it was very informative plus I had fun creating two paintings! I received very helpful suggestions from Michael and good feedback from my fellow classmates.
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