Pastel is ideal for portraits and life drawing partly because the light and colour reflecting particles resemble the glow of skin and partly as the soft powdery particles give a similar surface to skin. The fineness of the medium helps to create subtle transitions in tone that also give a believable three dimensional effect. I often use a technique with charcoal and pastel to create form quickly with a drawing from life. In a life drawing class, particularly with more difficult poses, there is a short time to “get it all onto the paper”. So, I choose a deep mid tone such as “Cachou” “Tobacco” or a mid to dark grey such as “Felt Grey” or “Steel Grey” in Canson Mi-tientes paper. There are also sanded surfaces that work well such as Art Spectrum Suede or Colour fix papers in sand, elephant, terracotta or blue grey. I sketch the figure with charcoal first then let the paper work as the darks and mid tones then I use a pastel to indicate the lights in the figure- such as a Rembrandt light, Burnt Sienna or Naples Yellow. Anything that will give a light flesh colour effect. I mainly use the pastel on the side to broadly and painterly fill in the areas of light falling on the figure. This gives a believable three dimensional effect whilst incorporating an impressionistic technique. It means that I can produce a finished drawing within an hour or two (such as the time in a life drawing session). I can then choose to use the sketch as a basis for more finished artworks or keep the sketch as the final piece. If I have more time working from life on the same pose I can choose to go back and fill in the dark and mid tone areas with pastel for a more finished pastel painting
Artwork and text copyright of the artist; Janet Hayes
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