Work in Progress: Peaches, Update 6
I’m making some progress on this.
Have some more detail in the face, progressing in the right direction. I added a bit of the background in – and that is helping to define the edges of the body. Most of the background is being laid in with soft pastels, and defined a little with pastel pencils. The curtain colors so far are raw sienna and burnt umber (Sennelier).
I’m a little disappointed in my ability to get in the detail that I want with pastel, but I think that is mostly due to my learning curve with pastel, a new medium for me. I like pastel but have to get used to using it. Although the likeness is good, I want greater detail. I think I can achieve that through further refinement. The harder pastels of the pastel pencils will not easily go over the top of the soft pastels, especially when the surface is loaded with the soft pastel. The pastel pencils sort of plough through the softer pastel without producing the fine lines I want. I’m finding that, with the pastel pencils, detail can be achieved by a slow buildup of light layers of pastel, working in the detail as I go. This is very much like laying down color with colored pencils. Light layers are built up slowly, and working mostly from light to dark. Once the tooth of the paper is filled to a greater degree with pastel, it is necessary to use softer and softer pastel on top. I can’t add pastel pencil on top of many layers of soft pastel that has been built up. If I’m going to stick with pastel pencils (and I want to, at least with portraits), color must be built up slowly in light layers, mixing as I go. Using the pencils takes more planning – just as colored pencils do. With that in mind, I should be able to succeed in establishing more detail.
