The Most Intimate Way to Paint with Pastels

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'Sing Out Loud'       8x8       pastel      ©Karen Margulis   $75 buy here

It's true. Pastel is a very sensual medium. When painting with a pastel stick there is nothing between you and the paper. No brushes, no mediums, no mixing of color....just sticks of pigment on a surface. A Pastel artist is up close and personal with a painting.  It's one of the things I love about pastels.  I didn't think painting with pastels could get even more intimate until I discovered a new way (for me) to apply pastels.

Painting with the dust of a pastel!

'Hunker Down'         6x6       pastel   $55 Buy Here

I'm in love all over again! This week I blogged about the Dusting technique and creating paintings and special effects by shaving pastel and pressing it into the painting.  This is a little different. For these two bird paintings I used the dust and painted with my fingers. Now there is truly nothing between the paper and pastel.  Here is what I did:

• I used Canson Mi-Teintes paper since I would be blending and wanted a non sanded surface. I tried the bumpy side to introduce some texture. I used a brown paper because that's what I had!
• For my pastels I used my 'Box of Bits'  the little pieces of leftover or broken bits of pastels that I saved for something. Now I have something to use them for.
• I didn't shave pastels to get my dust although you could, instead I crushed the little pieces to make piles of pastel powder. I put the piles of powder into a foam meat tray. 
• For the top bird I crushed the pastel into my palm but found I had to clean my hand in between every color change. I preferred preparing the piles of color in advance.
• I painted by dipping my thumb or forefinger into the pastel and smearing it on the paper. I used my finger like a brush. It was like finger painting with pastel dust! 
• I found that each pastel type made different marks. I loved the effect of the softer buttery pastels such as Great Americans. If there with small uncrushed bits, they made nice juicy marks.
• I did take a pastel pencil at the end to draw in a few details/lines but other than that it was all finger painting.
• For the chickadee in the snow I dusted (shaved) pastel and pressed it into the painting with a palette knife.

DISCLAIMER:  I did not use gloves. I used some hand barrier cream. I don't think I would use this technique exclusively unless I wore gloves but used sparingly I would definitely try to incorporate it into a painting.  It was a lot of fun and it really got me up close and personal with my subject! It's just another tool for my toolbox!

What to do With a New Box of Pastels

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'On a Winter's Day'           8x10        pastel       ©Karen Margulis  $145 Etsy shop
painted with the Richard McKinley Great American pastel set

Imagine this...you just got a brand new box of pastels. They are gorgeous. The colors are amazing and they sit in pristine condition all nestled in foam in a pretty box. You drool. You show them off to your pastel friends. They drool.  Now what do you do?

My set of Richard McKinley Great American pastels

You DON'T do what I did with this beautiful set of Great American pastels.  I have kept them pristine and unused in their box for three years!  I would take them out to show students what they looked like. I highly recommend this set by the way.  The palette Richard McKinley has put together is wonderful.
This actually is my second set and I was still using the first which is why I didn't use them.

But the time came yesterday to get these pastels out of the original box and get them ready to paint with rather than stare at!  We all face this issue. We get a new box of pastels and we aren't' sure of the best way to store them.  Here are a few of my tips:

• The absolute best way to paint is to have all of your colors in one box such as a Heilman or Dakota box, organized by color and value. See my post here on organizing your box.  Even if you make a box it is much better to have them all in the same box rather than having to cart around several boxes and hunt and peck for the right pastel color/value. So no matter how pretty they look in their box...take them out and introduce them to your other pastels!

• Next you have to do some pastel surgery. You need to break them into smaller pieces without the wrapper. Some pastels come in small enough manageable shapes. For example I don't break Terry Ludwig or Diane Townsend pastels. I like to have smaller pieces because I like to make larger swaths of color. 

• Take the wrappers off or break off a piece. With the wrappers on and full size, I tend to want to draw with them rather than paint.  For these Great Americans, I was able to snap off about 1/3 and pull it from the wrapper. The wrapper and the rest of the pastel stays in the original box and the piece goes into my working box.

After preparing the pastels to use (and not to just drool over)

• Next take your unwrapped piece of pastel and put it into your working box. (organized by color and value is best)  I usually put all new pastels into my big box. Occasionally I will get a special set such as this McKinley set that I want to keep separate.  I like to challenge myself and use a particular palette for a painting.  I keep some cigar boxes on hand that I line with foam for these separate sets. I have a Stan Sperlak set, Terry Ludwig Arid landscape, Jimmy Wright Great American set that I like to keep separate.

• Do you mix hard and soft pastels together?  Yes and no.  I like to keep my Nupastels in a separate box all mixed together since I really only use them for underpaintings. I keep Giraults separate since the are so small. Other than that I mix them all together. If you are brand new and don;t have a big selection I would but them all together until you build up your collection. Than you can put the very hard sticks in a separate box.

Today's painting was done using only my newly prepared Richard McKinley set. I just love these pastels!

How to Avoid Color Chaos in Your Paintings

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'Morning Study.Winter'       5x7        pastel    ©Karen Margulis
available by Daily Paintworks auction this week bid here

 I love my pastel collection. I have boxes everywhere filled with pastels. Studio box, travel boxes, misc palette boxes. And I still want more!  It is an addiction. If you are new to pastels and only have a small collection, don't worry you will want to get more.  But don't fret if you only have a small number of sticks.  It is when you have too many pastels that you can get in trouble with a painting!

It's true, having a huge number of pastels won't make you a better painter. It is knowing how to use what you have that will help you make better paintings. The mistake many of us make is to think of our entire box/collection of pastels as our palette for a paintings. We end up using too many colors and our paintings have no color harmony.  I have two suggestions to help you avoid color chaos.

• Decide on your color palette before each painting.  That means thinking about the colors you will use and physically pulling them out of the box an putting them in a separate tray. I use a butcher tray but anything that holds the pastels and keeps them from rolling off the table will work. I start by choosing a few colors in a dark, medium and light value and then add any other color I think I might need for a specific element in the painting.  Doing this has saved me form wanting to use every color in my entire box! I wrote a detailed post about my method here:http://kemstudios.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-studio-tool-for-better-color.html

Great American Pastels Richard McKinley set

• Try working with a limited palette chosen by another artist.  There are 2 ways to do this. If you decide to purchase a set of pastels that were chosen by an artist such as the Richard McKinley set or my other favorite, Terry Ludwig's Arid Landscape set ...keep these pastels separate. I put mine in cigar boxes and label them. Challenge yourself to do some paintings using only these colors.  When I am feeling blocked, I will take out one of these boxes for a challenge.  If you don't have a big selection of pastels you will probably want to put them into your working box of pastels but at least try the limited palette challenge before you break up the set.

• Another way to do this limited palette challenge is to look at the work of an artist you admire and pull some pastels to make up their palette. Now paint with these colors.

Today's painting is a quick study done with the Richard McKinley set. I plan on doing more. I love this palette!

The Trick for Working with a Limited Pastel Palette

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'Winter I'    2.5 x 3.5    pastel      $15 on Etsy

We are magicians!  After all if you are an artist you are creating magic. You can take a flat surface and create the illusion of depth and dimension. We have some tricks to help create this illusion such as how we portray aerial perspective.  But there are also tips and tricks for working with our materials.

I have been addressing the topic of working with a limited palette in my recent posts. Today I'd like to share my trick (actually just a tip but trick sounds more magical!)  for working with a limited pastel palette.
First have a look at these 10 miniature pastel winter landscapes. These were all painted using my Richard McKinley Great American set of pastels. There are 78 pastels in the set but I didn't even use half of them. I probably only used 30 or so colors.

'Winter II'    2.5 x 3.5   pastel         $15

'Winter III'   2.5 x 3.5   pastel    $15

'Winter IV'     2.5 x 3.5   pastel    sold

'Winter V'     2.5 x. 3.5     pastel    $15

'Winter VI'     2.5 x 3.5     pastel    $15

'Winter VII'       3.5 x 2.5    pastel   $15

'Winter VIII'    3.5 x 2.5      pastel    $15

'Winter IX'     3.5 x 2.5   pastel     $15

'Winter X'      3.5 x 2.5   pastel   $15

Thank you for looking!  I love challenging myself with these 2.5 x 3.5 minis.  So what is the trick for making 30 pastels work in a painting?

• Don't worry about the color of the pastel. Choose the pastel you will use by VALUE not color. That means that you don't have to focus solely on Local Color.  In other words tree trunks don't have to be brown, foliage isn't always green and snow doesn't have to be white.
• Look instead at how light or dark the thing is. Ask yourself is this clump of bushes light, medium of dark?  Then choose pastels that are the correct value. So a dark clump of bushes could be dark purple or dark blue or red. A light cloud could be pale purple, blue or yellow. Imagine the possibilities when you free yourself of the idea of staying absolutely true to local color!

If you get the Value right the object will read correctly!

• This tip works only if you have a selection of light, middle value and dark pastels. You don't many of each but you do need to have a range of values.  Many of the general pastel sets tend to be heavy on the middle values so you may have to supplement with a few pastels from open stock. OR you can lighten and darken a color with white or black but this isn't as satisfying or successful as having a good range of values.

These 10 mini original pastels are my first release of monthly minis. They are available for purchase in my Etsy shop for $15 each.  Each month I will be releasing a new series relating to the month. They would make a great collection!

Pastel Demo ...Winter Landscape with a Value Underpainting

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'Winter Delight'            8x10           pastel       ©Karen Margulis

I love painting the winter landscape.  In my pastel classes we will be working on snow and winter for the next two weeks. The underpainting or colors you choose for your paper have an impact on the mood of the painting so we will be trying several options to see the results.  For our first painting we will do a value underpainting using Nupastel and rubbing alcohol.

I love this method of starting a painting for any subject that has strong contrasts such as snow and sand. Here is what you need if you'd like to give it a try:

• sanded paper. I am using Uart
• dark blue/purple Nupastel. Any dark will work but I like the rich blue-purple #
• rubbing alcohol and a cheap stiff bristle brush.

Step 1  After doing a thumbnail/value study (not shown) Block in the darks shapes with the side of the Nupastel. Squint to see the big shapes. Avoid putting down spots of dark. Connect the dark shapes when possible. You don't want a 'spotty' painting!

Next, dip your brush in the alcohol and brush it onto the Nupastel. Take time and care with this step and try to have your brush strokes describe what you are painting. Let dry.



 Step 2   I begin by reinforcing the dark with a couple of layers of softer pastels. I used a dark blue and dark burgundy.After all the darks are in place I work on the sky. I used a few blues in the sky getting lighter and warmer closest to the horizon.  I put in sky holes to break up the tree trunks and branches.


Next I introduce some color to the distant treeline and the scrubby brush with some reds and greens. Now it is time to put in the shadows in the snow.  I make the shadows in the foreground warmer blues (turquoises) getting more lavender then pale blue as they go back into space.
I also draw in a few branches with the sharp edge of the Nupastel.


Time to warm up the tree trunks with a dark peach. I also warm up the scrubby brush with some warm greens and oranges and reds.  Finally....my favorite part...putting in the Light snow! Up until this  point I have avoided the light snow. I want everything else to be in place so I can go boldly in with my strokes of light pastel. The key is to go bold and fearless !  I use the a pale yellow for the foreground snow progressing to a dull rosy pinkish grey for the distant snow.

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Time for the finishing touches!  Using the same pale values I used in the snow, I highlight the white bark on the trees. I then go in ad add some darker 'scar' areas on the trunks. I put in a few more branches and sky holes and call it finished!

GEAR | Buck Products

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Bags. Bags. Bags. More bags. While still high from my jaunt to Jackson Hole last week, I discovered Buck Products out of Bozeman, Montana and am loving their simple roll-top backpacks ($100) and re-purposed totes ($60). While it's too late to get a custom order in (you can pick out any color combination your little heart desires) for Christmas, their stock bags are pretty great too. Everything is sewed from scratch by Alex Buck in the mountains of Montana and I love the old-school mountaineer aesthetic of his bags, but more importantly, as Buck says, "they hold a cubic-buttload and are wicked tough".

Q&A | Nikki Garcia

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Photo of Nikki Garcia via Need Supply. Q&A produced by Elaina Bellis.
This marks the last Q&A of 2012, and I'm super excited to end on such a high note. Nikki Garcia not only works for Levi's, but she is also the designer behind the small-batch American label First Rite out of San Francisco. Her clothing is evocative of Coco Chanel and has a certain rustic-yet-sophisticated vibe to it. She in influenced by menswear and clothes that are easy to wear while still looking sharp. Four words for you: I love this line.  
If not in San Francisco, I would live in...Montana.
My dream holiday would be to...go on a ghost town/hot springs road trip tour around the country.
My current obsessions are...
Food: Homemade pizza, arugula on everything, and hard ciders of many flavors.
Music: The Beatles and Grateful Dead always.

Fashion: Mom jeans, pistol boots, and a collared shirt buttoned up to the top and tucked in.
Retail Stores: Voyager and General Store in SF, Assembly NY, and Opening Ceremony.  
I channel my childhood self when I... hang out with my twin sister! 
The fictional character I most relate to is...I want to say Nancy Drew but my life is just not as interesting.
If I had to be outdoors all day I would...be in the woods.

My favorite quality in a man is...thoughtfulness, humor, and beautiful blue eyes.
  
My favorite quality in a woman is...a sense of humor and an adventurous spirit. 

I'm terrified of...spiders. 

My dream car is a...woody wagon.

My cocktail of choice is...tequila, lime juice, and soda. 

My celebrity crush is...Antonio Banderas in his Desperado days.

My beauty product of choice is...Weleda Wild Rose Day Cream. 
My friends and I like to...ride bikes.
If I could go back in time for one decade it would be...the 1960's feel like an obvious choice.
As a teenager I was totally into...getting in trouble.  I tend to splurge on...shoes and denim. Especially ankle boots. 
Choosing pantsuits over dresses...is what makes me have Tomboy Style.