DEMONSTRATION beginning with an underpainting

Covering your surface with an underpainting can be useful in many ways. An underpainting can establish preliminary values, and as you layer color over it you can allow some of the underpainting to show through to add excitement. Try these methods of underpainting to see what works best for your subjects.

Underpainting with the Local Color

If you begin with an underpainting of local color (the object’s actual color, like the red of an apple not made blue with shadows or white with reflected light), you can quickly establish large shapes and value patterns. Block in big shapes of color in accurate values, then stand back and analyze the structure of color and value—if you aren’t happy with it, it can be changed easily at this point. Keep your first application of pastel thin so you don’t fill the tooth of the paper.

Making Changes

Pastel is probably the easiest medium in which to make changes. If you discover you need to change an area of a painting, even if it’s as much as half the composition, you can simply remove the pastel and begin again.

The methods for removing pastel depend in part on the surface you’re working on. One of the best tools for removing pastel from sanded paper or smoother-textured paper is a foam brush—the kind you buy at the hardware store for applying paint.

Take the painting outside if possible, or work in a well-ventilated area, hold the painting (still on its backing board) vertically, and brush the pastel from the paper in the area where you need to make revisions. It may take several passes with the brush, and you may need to sharply tap the brush against the waste receptacle into which you’re brushing the

materials list

White Professional Grade Wallis Sanded Pastel Paper

Turpenoid™

No. 8 filbert brush

pastel pencils

middle-value or dark yellow-orange, light brown, dark brown

pastels

light-value yellow, middle-value yellow, middle-value yellow-orange, middle-value peachy orange, middle-value orange, very light cool blue, light cool blue, middle-value cool blue, dark cool blue, light brown, middle-value brown, dark warm brown, mauve-brown, dark purple-brown, light blue-gray, light yellow-gray, middle-value beige-gray, light yellow-green, middle-value yellow-green, bright middle-value green, middle-value green, dark green, dark blue-green, bright red

1 Begin with a Local Color Underpainting
Deborah Christensen Secor began this painting on white Wallis Sanded Pastel Paper with a loose local color underpainting.

2 Foreground Altered
As she began working with the next application of color, Secor decided to make a change in the foreground after the first layer of color was applied, so she rubbed out the foreground. pastel dust, but you should be able to remove almost all the pastel from the surface.

Sanded paper, such as Wallis Paper or Art Spectrum Colourfix, will allow you to take one more step. If you’ve brushed off everything you can but still aren’t satisfied with the tooth remaining, lay the paper (on its backing board) flat on a table, and carefully drip a few drops of Turpenoid™ in the area where you’re removing pastel. Using a corner of a paper towel, rub it into the area and then lift off. Once the surface is dry, you can begin again.

Note that none of these methods will remove every bit of pastel, and a “ghost” of the previous image may remain. But if the tooth has been recovered, that’s all that’s necessary to let you apply a new layer or layers of pastel and make your changes.

If not enough pastel comes off, or if you’re working on a very heavily textured surface such as a pumice/gesso prepared board, try an old toothbrush (dry). The stiffer bristles will remove more pastel.

3 More Changes
Studying the painting at this point, Secor decided to make a revision to the trees on the left of the painting and rubbed them out.

Light from Above
18" × 11" (46cm × 28cm) by Deborah Christensen Secor

4 The Advantage of Underpainting
Beginning with an underpainting allowed changes to be made early on while retaining the basic structure of the painting. The underpainting also set the pattern of basic colors and values, which were strengthened as the painting evolved.