Soft Pastels

Work is welcome to the twentieth video and the secret to drawing video course brought to you by the virtue instructor dot com. And this video we’re going to continue our look at color drawing media with soft pastels soft pastels also known as chalk. Pastels is a drawing medium that consist of highly pigmented material held together by a binder soft pastels produce a high level of dust and are therefore readily smudged or spread over drawing surfaces . Soft pastel drawings resemble paintings and are often referred to as paintings even though the process is clearly a drawing process. So let’s take a look at this drawing process now as you can see I’ve marked off the area that I want to draw within with blue painters tape. I can pull this tape off at the end of the drawing and or protect the areas around my drawing. In this demonstration I’m drawing a seascape. I’m going to start with the area that’s the furthest away which in this case is the sky and work downward to the middle ground which is the ocean. And then lastly the foreground I’ve defined in my sky and if moved on to the ocean area now I started with a dark blue mixed with some brown to define the ocean areas that are further away at this point . I start to define the breaking waves that are a little bit closer to the middle ground. I’m not going to concentrate too heavily on the details that I see in my head or reference. Instead I’m just going to concentrate on the fields of color and the values of those colors that I see in my photo reference and I’m going to concentrate on putting those colors and values into my drawing . As long as I get the shapes correct and I get the colors and values correct it will translate as a representational drawing. One of the more attractive characteristics of working with soft pastels is their ability to be mix directly on the surface as you can tell. I’m putting layer after layer of color in my drawing. Each time I add a different layer of color the colors become more complex and more representational . Now there are a few rocks that jut up from the breaking waves back in the background. I’m going to start to define them by using a very dark brown. Next I’ll go back with a very dark blue and define the shadow side in this drawing the light sources come in from the right side. Now I’ll go back with the yellow ochre and define the highlighted side of those rocks. I’ll continue to work down through the middle ground by adding dark areas and light areas as I see them in my photo reference . Next I can bring down some of the blue screen to help to find some of the water that will be in the foreground of the drawing. This will help me plan out my overall composition. I’ll continue to build up depth in the drawing by using a variety of different blues and greens applying them in a horizontal direction wherever I see darker values of colors. I’ll add those at this point. I’m not concerned with details just defining the areas that are dark and light in the water . Once I’ve built up a substantial layer of blues and greens I can go back with white to define more of the breaking waves. Some of these areas I will smudge with my finger. The majority of it I will leave alone . I am continually looking at my photo reference and then going back to my drawing taking the information about color and shape that I see in my photo reference to my drawing. Even though the water is predominantly blue a bit of green AIDS and creating the illusion of realistic water I’ll add a bit of green here and there in the middle ground I’ll burnish some of those colors. The light blue a little bit of white and some of the darker blues. Now that I have enough information in my middle ground I’ll begin to define some of the rocks that will overlap the water that I’ve already drawn. I’ll do this with a dark brown. I begin with an outline and start filling in the dark brown. Then I’ll use my finger and smear the color around for full coverage . Here again I’ll help to find the light source by using dark blue on the left hand side of the rocks a little bit of dark blue behind the rocks create some cast shadow in the water . And then a bit of yellow ochre on the side with the light sources originating from to create how I now begin to define the rocks in the middle ground and foreground amusin a lighter brown to indicate some of the mid tones that exist on these structures . Next I’ll use a cream chalk pastel to begin to indicate some of the shapes of the highlights on the rocks. I’m just looking at the shapes of the colors that exist in my photo reference and trying to mimic those shapes in my drawing. Next I’ll take some dark blue. Begin to define some of the shadowed areas on the rocks the dark blue and the Browns mix to make a very dark tone . Now I’ll push the contrast a bit further by using some yellow ochre to push the highlights . I’ll spread some of the highlighted colors around by using a white pastel then I can go back and push the darks a little bit further. The very dark gray. Now I can continue to work on the water that exists in the foreground. I’ll do this again by putting down dark blues and lighter blues and greens to create some variation in the color that exist in the water. Then I’ll go over the top of the built up colors with some white to create the illusion of ways I’ll create the illusion of waves breaking against the rocks by putting more white pastel in those areas . It’s important to use the same colors and values that you used in different parts of the drawing. This will help create harmony in your drawing. Therefore I want to make sure that the same blues blue greens and greens that are used in the back portion of the drawing are used in the foreground as well . I can now finish the last portion of the drawing by creating the illusion of waves much like I did in the foreground and background of the drawing . Now my drawing is complete I can remove the painter’s tape carefully. Now my drawing is complete I’ll need to finish it with some fixative or some hairspray to make sure that the pastel doesn’t smear. So what do we learn in this video. Well first we learn that soft pastel drawings can resemble paintings even being called paintings. Patience and layering is important for success in soft pastel drawing complex and realistic colors are created with this patience and layering. We also learned it is best to work from far to near most typically from the top to the bottom of your surface when working with soft pastels. We also learned because of the nature of the material. Soft pastel drawings must be fixed with fixative or framed behind protective glass. In the next video we’re going to start talking about portraiture and look at facial features.