Pastel Demo....Trees and Sagebrush on Mystery Paper

'A View to Remember'            11x14           pastel             ©Karen Margulis
this painting is available for $150 click here to purchase

 It's Mystery Paper!  I though I knew my pastel paper but this has me stumped. I was taking paper inventory this morning since I am getting low and I came across this package of paper in my pile. I have a dwindling stack of assorted paper I purchased from an artist who was downsizing.

Mystery Paper....Anyone know what it is?

There were two sheets about 15x20 in a plastic bag sealed with a 'Made in Canada' sticker. The paper was toned this salmon color on the front. It felt like heavy rag paper with a soft touch. The sanded side wasn't gritty like sandpaper. Nothing like Uart. It reminded me more of Canson Touch or Colourfix, sanded but not sandy. I decided to give it a try on today's painting.

My thoughts: Like any paper tried for the first time it felt strange. I didn't dislike it but I didn't fall in love. It will take more paintings on it for me to give a fair assessment. I was actually relieved I didn't fall immediately in love with the paper since I don't know what it is.  Does anyone know what kind of paper this is?

Enjoy today's mini demo on this mystery paper. Stay tuned this weekend for the release of my latest PDF Demo Booklet which will also cover painting trees and shrubs!

Step 1:  Rough sketch with charcoal

 Step 2: Blocking in the dark shapes with 3 different dark value pastels. The pastels are having a hard time covering this paper.

Step 3: Working on the sky and distant mountain.

Step 4: I decided to blend in the first layer so I could get better coverage. Adding green to the trees.

Step 5: Adding more color to the trees and foreground sagebrush. I feel like I am getting close to filling the tooth of the paper so I decide to use some workable fixative spray.

Step 6: The fixative helped. I am able to add more color to the trees and start to develop the sagebrush. I needed to spray 2 more times to give me the tooth I needed to get the effect I wanted in my foliage.

Step 6: At this stage I begin working more on the foreground. I also added more color to the trees and sunlit shrubs. Finally I added more blue to the sky and lightened the mountain.