Visit my Patreon Page for more painting instruction and Paint Along Videos!

Friday, February 02, 2018

Some Fun with a Few Pastels

'Pleasant Field'          8x10       pastel       ©Karen Margulis
available $145
Painting time is my reward for a long day of cleaning. The Great Studio clean up continues with one small corner now uncovered and organized. I will give you a tour when I am all done. Todays focus was my easel area. I have a shelf unit next to my easel with my frequently used painting supplies such as workable fixative, brushes, clips and extra pastels. Lots of extra pastels. 13 years accumulation. I went through the boxes and labeled them so I could see what I have. I discovered some forgotten treasures such as a box of misc Unison pastels.

Yummy greens and violets!
Also found a piece of Wallis Belgian Mist with the beginnings of a raven painting. I knew I had to use the green Unisons so I taped up the piece of paper and pulled out a very green reference photo. What could be more fun than a summer meadow with clover? The Wallis paper and green and violet Unisons would be perfect.

I turned the paper upside down and started a new painting
 I really enjoyed the Unison pastels for this painting because it allowed me to play with a variety of marks. The colors were perfect for the summer grasses and flowers.

  • I used the sticks on their sides for the block in. I wanted wide and loose marks beginning with the darkest values.
  • My marks got increasingly smaller and more controlled as I painted the thicker grasses and flowers. 
  • The final marks were fine dancing linear marks. The top edge of the round Unisons allowed me to get fine controlled lines.


The block in of big shapes

1 comment:

robertsloan2art said...

Beautiful! Love the palette. Thirteen years of spares tucked away on a shelf? That is so cool. Look what this says about your color preferences, what you pick up on impulse or need extras of. It's great.

I had to smile at the painting, it's lovely and classic Margulis! Gorgeous, gorgeous greens... I love those in my Unisons too.