Three Ways to Create Depth in Grasses

'Autumn Tangle'          7x5        pastel        ©Karen Margulis
available $95

Oh the things that excite me! There could be a fantastic vista in front of me and my eye will wander and find the patch of dead weeds!  This is my favorite time of year for this motif. The time of year when the flowers of summer are spent. If I am lucky I find their remains in tangles of dried grasses. I love painting them and have become better at portraying the tangle of grasses and spent blooms.

As I worked on today's painting I thought of the things I do to help me paint the dead weeds and create depth in the weed patch. Here are three of my favorite tips:

1.  Build from large simple areas of pastel and gradually use smaller and more defined marks. I apply the pastel with the side of the stick creating 'washes' of color before painting a single blade of grass. When I build the layers of grass I use more detail on top of the flat areas of pastel. The thicker grasses are applied with a firm hand. I like to have bits and pieces and chunks of color to suggest the variation found in grasses.

2. Start with the darkest colors you see in the mass of grasses. It is always a good idea to work from dark to light with pastel and when building up a complex angel of grassy stuff it is best to have the darker layers down before adding the lighter colors. Add the bits and pieces of color as your final marks.

3. Try using workable fixative or a spritz of rubbing alcohol to darken and 'fix' the first layers. Then when the lighter colors are applied they will skip over the fixed areas revealing some texture that helps suggests grasses. I like to use Blair Low odor workable fixative. 

*Note: apply the fixative with a light spray keeping the spray can moving. Don't allow the surface to get too wet or it will be slick and not receptive to pastel.

Beginning to build the layers