Pastel Painting Tips - Taos Mountain Ranch

Описание: This video is a 25 minute exerpt focusing on the painting pastel painting technique of a 51 minute pastel demo. Another video of the drawing portion of the longer video is avaible, entitled "Pastel Drawing Demo-Taos Mountain Ranch". The full 51 minute demo is available on my Patreon channel at   / mikemahonfineartist  .

This shortened pastel painting demonstration was started at a painting workshop I taught in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The painting was brought to about 90% completing with plans to complete it in my home studio following the workshop. However, I broke my wrist and it was several months before I was able to finish the painting.

There was one significant error regarding this painting that I realized when I got it home to my studio. Correcting the problem is one of the best learning experiences of this demo.

So, what was the problem? The circumstances of the room in which I was painting was extremely strong natural lighting which distorted my perception of values. It was a rookie mistake. I am always aware of the strong lighting in plein air painting where the natural lighting can be very bright which result in the values being much too dark. I'm usually careful to paint extra light to compensate out doors. Being indoors, I simply neglected to take into account the brightness of the room. As a rule, I make a point in my own studio to work in normal indoor lighting or even subdued lighting to be sure I paint light and bright, not dark and dull. I hope how I corrected the painting will be helpful. Working on an Ampersand Pastel Board added to the difficulty because the tooth is not quite as forgiving as a fully sanded paper.

The painting is on an 18x24 board. As is normal for me, I layed in most of the painting with hard pastels (Nupastel) and finished it with a collection of my soft pastels (Terry Ludwig and Unison).

Portions of the video are speeded up by 4 or 5 times, so that it is under an hour in length rather than the 3 or 4 hours of actual painting time. The first portion of the demo is about how to transfer a photo to the painting surface using a proportion wheel. If you are familiar with this technique, you might want to skip the first 15 minutes of the demo. If you are not familiar with this technique or need a refresher, I highly recommend that you watch it.

At about 35 minutes in the video is when I begin correcting the painting in my home studio. At about 47 minutes is where I make another major correction.

This painting is a great example of how forgiving pastel is and how correct value is more important than color. Even on a surface like an Ampersand board many layers of pastel are possible giving opportunity for correcting and editing the image.

Music: Modern Jazz Samba by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

https://mmahon.com
  / mikemahonfineartist