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Saturday, March 11, 2017

A Surprise Pastel Gift From Russia

'Glorious Weeds'         8x10        pastel       ©Karen Margulis
available $150
 It was quite a lovely surprise. A Facebook friend wrote to me recently wanting to share some pastels his family brought from Russia. He knew I had blogged about the Russian pastels I liked to use for grasses. He had two boxes and wanted to share one with me! I was so excited to get the package. What could be better than mystery pastels!

My new pastels from Russia
 These pastels are definitely a mystery. I wonder what the box says? I had to try them out and today's painting gave me the perfect opportunity. I was expecting them to be very hard like the other Russian pastels sent to me by my friend in Finland. But these pastels were actually a bit creamy. They were still great for painting my grasses. Look at the close up below for the evidence!


close up detail of the grasses
Tips for Painting Grasses

  • Build up to the delicate grass marks. Start with the dirt....big simple shapes of color
  • Create broken lines rather than heavy lines for the grass blades...think Lyrical Lines 
  • Avoid the trap of trying to paint every bland of grass. Choose to put in a few well placed bladed of grass. 
  • Vary colors and direction of marks. Variation is the key
  • Vary the pressure of your marks...push and release for a natural looking piece of grass
  • Round pastels make excellent grass. Use the hard edge and draw or roll the pastel

Painting note:  Uart 500 with a wet pastel underpainting. Inspired by my favorite park in Chicago.

Thank you to my dear friend for sending these pastels to me. I will certainly have fun with them and I appreciate your generosity!

5 comments:

Becky Chappell Artist said...

I love, love this, Karen! I got a big box of pastels on auction, Russian I believe. They look to be very old. They're great earthy colors, and rather creamy. I wonder if it's the same brand but older? Anyway, as usual, you did great things with them!

nigelcranham@hotmail.com said...

Hi Karen a quick translation on the Pastels is '30 sticks of Pastel' not very exciting really but the results look good. Have a great day!

Małgorzata said...

"Pastels - 30 colours" that is. If you'd like translation of anything from the back just take photo and share, I could try to translate it, however, it's not my mother tongue (but I had to learn this language at school when I was a child). On the other hand, there are probably just names of colours of stics and you surely use the colour as you see it, not its name to paint ;D Have a nice Sunday !

Unknown said...

The text says....

PASTELS
30 colors

where can I get a set??

Svetlana said...

Good afternoon. I live in Russia and enjoy reading this blog. This pastel is in the city of Podolsk at the Art center. The only surprise fancy paper on the crayons. I've only seen transparent. The store sends by mail only within the country. I live in another city. But if you really want to try, you can contact me through Facebook, think about how to help) Here is their website podolsk-artc.ru. With respect and Svetlana Buzanova interesting. Светлана Бузанова гор. Нижний Новгород. художник