The Magic of Green Pastels
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| 'Summer Magic' 16x20 pastel ©Karen Margulis |
Enjoy another post from the archives. I will be back to regular posting this week!
Greens can make us crazy! Pastel artists can't really mix our own greens so we have to have a variety of green pastels in our collection. (we can adjust our greens somewhat...more on this in another post) Our green collection grows as we discover the limitations of our basic pastel sets.
Having the right greens and using them in the right place can result in magic! I learned this first hand on my Iceland trip. I didn't have the right greens in my travel box!
Iceland was very lush and green. But I didn't anticipate just how cool those lush greens would be. I had my usual very limited travel set and my Gogh Box. I didn't have a lot of pastels so my selection of greens was limited. I just didn't have the right greens. I had a variety of light, middle and dark greens and a couple of cooler greens. But overall my greens were warmer yellowy greens.
I was in Iceland with no art store nearby so I had to make due with what I had. I was able to capture the values in my plein air studies but would have to wait until I got home to reinterpret these studies with a better selection of green. It was a valuable lesson!
Look at the difference the greens can make in a painting. The larger painting at the top is my studio painting. I used the smaller study as a reference and changed the selection of greens to better represent the lushness I saw.
I invite you to read my travelog about my trip to Iceland complete with photos and paintings. Links to each chapter can be found on my Pinterest board here.
- We learn that the vivid artificial looking greens in the basic beginner sets can be too garish for believable landscapes.
- We realize that in order to create depth (aerial perspective) in our landscapes we need a variety of warm, cool and neutral green pastels. We also need a range of values. Basic sets often only include mostly middle value bright greens.
- With practice we start to see the difference between warm, cool, intense and dull and we begin to understand where to use them. At first we may not see it. I know I didn't. Green was green and I couldn't understand why we would want (and covet) a full set of Terry Ludwig Greens! But lots of practice has developed my sensitivity to green and I would LOVE that full set.
Having the right greens and using them in the right place can result in magic! I learned this first hand on my Iceland trip. I didn't have the right greens in my travel box!
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| 'Emergence II' 8x10 plein air pastel |
I was in Iceland with no art store nearby so I had to make due with what I had. I was able to capture the values in my plein air studies but would have to wait until I got home to reinterpret these studies with a better selection of green. It was a valuable lesson!
Look at the difference the greens can make in a painting. The larger painting at the top is my studio painting. I used the smaller study as a reference and changed the selection of greens to better represent the lushness I saw.
I invite you to read my travelog about my trip to Iceland complete with photos and paintings. Links to each chapter can be found on my Pinterest board here.
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