Friday, February 10, 2012

Portraits in Pastel-Red Heads!


Paper selection is an important step in the planning and design of a pastel painting. Pastel painting is unique in that there is such a variety of papers that can be used to create the paintings. Each of these surfaces have a texture, or "tooth", that the pastel pigment particles adhere to. Some are smoother than others, some are very gritty, much like sandpaper. I tend to enjoy working on the grittier papers, as those papers hold many more layers of pigment and offer me more options for creating the color and mood I am trying to create. The papers also come in a variety of colors, from white to neutral tints to bold and bright. For portraits, I tend to work mostly on a gritty but fine-toothed paper in a neutral tint, UArt 600.

"Kate"
12x16

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