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Monday, December 09, 2019

A Magical Surprise Addition to Your Winter Paintings

'Winter Hush'              2.5 x 3.5 inches        pastel         ©Karen Margulis
 I had a surprise this week!  I decided to paint a few mini pastels to use for holiday gifts. I started out doing a series of magical winter forest scenes. I started with dark blue and built up layers of green in the fir trees. Then I spotted a small sparkly green peeking out at me from the box.  I felt the excitement build as I took it out of the box.

And then I made a mark with it. It felt wonderful as I added some of this iridescent green to my trees. It was soft and smooth and let a sparkly trail that added just the right color and punch to my trees. It was magic! 


A fun little pastel.....Diane Townsend iridescent pastel 503D

I have other iridescent pastels but for some reason I love the green ones the best. They tend to add just the right touch to trees. I have another one in my plein air box and everyone in awhile I use it and I always enjoy the effect. 

Tip: The trick to using a sparkly pastel and making it work is to make sure you are using the right value and color. This way the sparkle is subtle and blends right into the surroundings.


Wrapped and ready for last minute gifts


6 comments:

MYSTELIOS said...

Very wonderful !!!

Anthony Tran said...

This is a beautiful work of art. It really captures the essence of the winter season. I've always wanted to learn how to use Pastel within my paintings.

springballoon said...

ello Karen! Beautiful work! I always enjoy watching your tutorials on YouTube channel. Are you planning to post any new ones? Thank you! And happy holidays!
Olena

Karen said...

Thanks!! I’ve been traveling but will be posting more videos soon! I also have new weekly videos on my Patreon page www.patreon.com/Karenmargulis

Peeved said...

Is there a way with Blogger (...blogspot.com) that I can follow your blog without having to remember?

Karen said...

Yes you can get email notifications of ne posts by signing up on the blog. Look on the top left of any blog page for the box that says follow by email.