The Beauty of Blended Pastel Paintings

'Back to Ireland'            8x10             pastel             ©Karen Margulis
available $155

"I touch it not"  That advice would stay with me for a long time. For the longest time I would not blend my pastel paintings at all. Albert Handell's voice would echo in my mind whenever I felt the urge to blend. Oh I would use a finger to soften an edge here and there but I avoided blending any large areas of pastel. It wasn't easy. It feels like the natural thing to do with pastel......rub it all in until it is smooth. But I realized that I risked making mud if I gave into the blending urge.

I do blend occasionally now. I often blend in the entire first layer of a pastel painting to create a dry wash underpainting. But I still rarely blend any more than the first layer. Until now. I couldn't resist. I wondered what would happen if I blended layers as I painted? What if I wanted a smooth and serene painting? What if I wanted to avoid any texture?

So I gave in and decided to create a blended painting. I used a piece of Viva brand paper towel as my blending tool. It is a strong and soft paper towel and works well as a blending tool. I used a piece of gray sanded paper.  I also further challenged myself to use only greens from Terry Ludwig's set of 90 greens for the landscape.

blending with a paper towel. 

The result: It wasn't easy! I have worked hard over the years to create the illusion of texture in my paintings. To keep things smooth and simple was a challenge. But in the end I began to enjoy the softness of the blended passages. I was pleased with the process and the results. Who knows where this experiment may lead me!

Note: Because I was using only green there was no worry of creating grays or muddy color by blending layers together. 

Head on over to Patreon this week for more on blending as a pastel technique! www.patreon.com/karenmargulis