CHAPTER THREE
putting pastel to paper

Blanco Winter
11" × 14" (28cm × 36cm)

There are probably as many techniques of applying pastel as there are artists using the medium. You’ll develop your own techniques as you become familiar with the way pastels behave, but the methods demonstrated in this chapter will give you a starting point.

Many of these techniques were used in creating the painting on the opposite page. It began with a brilliant color underpainting—one of several underpainting techniques we’ll explore. The distant trees and foliage on the bank were created using broken color, tapping slightly to merge the colors. Rubber-tipped paint shaper tools were also used to blend some of those colors. A variety of strokes were used—pastels were applied held on the side except when making lines, which were drawn with tips or corners. Finally, the water was painted using light strokes of pastels held on their sides; the reflections were blended, layered and blended again, after which the blue water was added in the foreground.