A little experimenting with textured handmade paper.

I mentioned in my last post about experimenting and exploring the new possibilities of using

the textured hand made paper ( From Sun Papers - Fort ) for my soft pastel paintings.

The soft pastel painting of a seascape is a quick study work on blue coloured hand made

paper with beautiful textures on it. I wanted to try out the underpainting with water 

before adding the second layer of pastels.

After having drawn the rough outline with white pencil, I blocked in the initial colours in 

my usual technique and then instead of blending the colours I ran a wet brush over the sky, 

followed by the other elements. Everytime I painted on a different coloured area, I made 

sure that I washed the brush again in clean water. After having done that, I let the paper 

dry. The paper being thick, fortunately did not buckle.

Once the paper was fully dry, I added the second layer of pastel colours and a few details 

at places where required. In all I enjoyed using this paper. It is very reasonable too. I 

purchased it long time back but I think it should not be more than Rs 60/- a sheet.

Seascape on Blue handmade paper.

Just an experiment.

I love soft pastel medium because of its rich and vibrant colours. Moreover it is a dry

medium and one does not have to wait for it to dry. We do not need many tools around.

Just the pastels, a kneaded eraser and a sheet of paper. 

The pastel colours do not fade or crack in time. I do not have to worry about the painting

catching fungus though I still take precaution to keep Silica Gel around

my art work to absorb the moisture around.

One of my favourite Quotes

"I dream my painting and then I paint my dream." Vincent Van Gogh

Demo works of forest scenes created during my ART WORKSHOP

I recently conducted my usual Two days soft pastel workshop. The first day is like a warm up 

for the participants where in they understand all about the soft pastel medium, the papers, the techniques etc. and then go on to create simple works like seascape and landscape with mountains. 

On the second day I normally go about doing demo works of forest scenes, wherein I explain 

my step by step technique that I follow to create a landscape starting with the sky,

followed by the trees, bushes, the pathway etc. The painting technique that I follow normally

completes in two layers of soft pastels.

These demo works are normally completed in a duration of thirty to forty minutes each and

I add a few details here and there once the workshop is complete. Both the demo works as seen

below are done on Canson Mi Teintes paper are done with reference to my photographs from

Coorg. ( Madikeri )

Two soft pastel demo works done during

a Two days soft pastel workshop.

Since I am working a lot with soft pastels these days, I decided to experiment and explore.

I used a Prussian blue coloured hand made paper ( with textured surface ) and created a 

seascape on it using soft pastels with an underpainting created using wet brush

 on pastels. Just an experiment to check out if pastels work good on

 handmade textured paper. Will post the image of my experimental work soon.

Reflections in the water - soft pastel work

One of my favourite photographs taken at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. It has been on my laptop since last year or so. I finally decided to give it a try in my way. I started off by selecting the black coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper. I started off by simplifying the bigger shapes and coloured 

them as a whole using the soft pastel medium. Blended the colours using my fingers. 

Then I fixed the layer with Winsor and Newton fixative.

In the second layer I added the tree trunks, foliage and other details. Signed at the bottom left 

with a white pastel pencil. I have also made use of the black charcoal pencil at places especially

to create the thin branches.

Solitude

Soft pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 6" X 9"

What is most challenging in any forest landscape is the greens. No matter how many shades 

you have, you still fall short of the right shade. Unlike water colours, oils and acrylics

it is not easy to get the green shades by mixing different colours. Moreover with

my past experience I know for sure that if I use more than two colours on each

other it creates a muddy effect and the freshness of the colour fades away.

I have created a few more small Demo works in soft pastel medium and I shall

be posting them soon.