Is Wetter Better? Try This Fun Technique with Pastels

'Hidden in the Meadow'        14x11         ©Karen Margulis
available $165

I never thought to keep it wet. But it was so much fun! It was really one of those happy accidents. I was reimagining a painting today and my impatience got the best of me. It was a good thing this time! I discovered a very interesting way to work with my pastels.

Pastels are just paint in a dry form.

It is good to be reminded that pastels are really just sticks of pure pigment that have been mixed with a binder and water and shaped and dried. We are actually painting with real paint. So when we get pastels wet they return to their liquid state. Think of wet underpaintings. We wet the pastel with water or alcohol and we get a wet and drippy paint to push around. I love wet underpaintings. But today I was impatient for my underpainting to dry.....

The unfinished painting on Multimedia Artboard

I had pulled this old poppy painting from the pile of unfinished painting. I  started it a few years ago at IAPS in the Bill Creevy workshop. It was on Multimedia Artboard. This is a surface that can take a lot  of abuse and is endlessly reworkable. I decided to spray the painting with water and alcohol mix to get a wet underpainting. The colors started to drip and mix and mingle. I took a brush and pushed this paint around. I needed to wait to let the underpainting dry before continuing.

But I couldn't wait! It was taking long to dry. Probably because the pastel was too thick. So I didn't wait. I just picked up a green pastel and started to paint. And a wonderful thing happened.....

Nice and thick!

As soon as I applied the pastel stick to the wet paper it was like magic. It felt like I was painting with butter on a hot pan. The pastel melted and became like liquid paint. But it was liquid paint that I could control. I didn't stop. I picked up another green pastel and kept painting on the wet surface. This technique lent itself to my subject of tangled stems and grasses. I kept spraying and painting and building up the texture. The Multimedia Artboard was perfect for this technique as it didn't warp or curl.

The interesting thing was that the pastels on wet paper didn't seem to be used up any faster than when used dry. I think I will continue to explore this further!



Want to paint more expressive poppies? Give my step by step PDF demo a try for only $6. Available in my Etsy shop. Click here.