Anyway, with the Escalante Canyons Plein Air Festival starting this Friday, I've been wanting to do some paintings of the area as practice. I put in an order for some Mt. Vision pastels as an accompaniment for my Utah canyon plein air set, and those arrived last week - exciting!
From Wed, at fellow 4C member Jane Mercer's studio, when rain canceled our plans to paint at Baker's Bridge:
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| Wash Wall Shadows - 10x20" pastel on Mi-Tientes © S.Johnson |
As much as I love my smooth, black papers, they have their limitations, so I'm trying to expand my repertoire with surfaces. I previously haven't had much luck using Mi-Tientes, but had this piece, in a medium value tan, and decided it would be good to practice on. Also, some of the most masterful pastels I've seen have been done on this lowly, old-school paper. Specifically, I wanted to see how the Unisons in my sky set handled on this paper; on the black paper, they just sheet off.
They worked like a dream on the Canson. Perhaps it's because my painting and pastel handling skills have improved, but I am thinking I need to give this paper another shot. I learned many-a things with this painting, about what works (layering), what doesn't (dark over light - I can do that on my black paper). This is possibly the first painting I've done on Mi-Tientes that I didn't want to immediately toss in the trash, so that's a plus.
I also ordered some 800# UArt, which may turn out to be my sanded paper of choice. I do know that Wallis and 400# UArt are just too aggressive for my current painting technique, so we'll see how the finer grits of the UArt go. Unfortunately, Blick sent me the #600 instead (but are shipping out replacement sheets), so I may try that on my next plein air painting, slated for Horse Gulch, tomorrow afternoon.
Oh yeah - here's a small study I did last week with Connie, who paints with the Friday group:
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| Smelter Rapid Study - 6x8", plein air pastel on black cardstock |
Connie said she has struggled painting water and rocks (and thus, doesn't paint them), and wanted to watch me paint. So, we went down to Santa Rita Park and I gave an informal lesson, which, odd as it sounds, was more about "seeing" than painting.
I love your pastel work, Sonja, and enjoy following your blog! I was wondering what paper you are using that you refer to as "black cardstock". Thanks for sharing your beautiful paintings as well as telling a little about the process of your art!
ReplyDeleteHi Dorothy - thank you so much for your visits and your kind comments! Re: the black cardstock - I probably discussed it back when I started using it, but your comment is a good reminder to mention it periodically :). My favorite brand, made by Wausau, I buy at Target: Eclipse Black Cardstock. It is 65lb, acid-free, and you can't beat the price.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, its intended use is for scrapbooking, but I find it pretty much identical to the Strathmore Artagain that I use for larger paintings, surface-wise. What I do to prep it for use with pastels is vigorously sand the surface with a piece of #220 wet/dry sandpaper. This gives it a bit of velvety tooth so the pastels adhere better. It doesn't work well with extra soft pastels and certain individual pastels of various brands, but overall, I love it. It's cheap enough that I don't feel bad tossing paintings. Even if you don't use a square format and trimmed every piece to a 9x12, it's still a great value. I save the trimmings to do color swatches on, or small 1:3 or 1:4 format paintings on.
These are both so pretty, Sonya! I really like your composition on the first piece. It draws the viewer's eye into the painting, and you captured such a lovely feeling of depth, too. Lovely!
ReplyDeleteThank you! How interesting...you sand your papers! I would never have thought of that, and now you've got me curious enough to give it a try. Thanks for sharing, and happy painting!
ReplyDeleteHi Darla - thank you, as always, for your comments. I ended up taking photos of this same view on both directions of the hike, without realizing it until I looked at them later, which always tells me that I was really drawn to the view.
ReplyDeleteDorothy - you're welcome! I know a few other pastelists that sand their paper surface, including Canson (that didn't work for me at all!). Keep up the good work, and definitely experiment with different surfaces; you never know what you'll end up loving.