Pastel Scribbler

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The Pastel Scribbler June 2012

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In This Issue Editorial Scribble ......................................................................................................... 2 Guest Judge: Robert A. Sloan .................................................................................... 3 Get Dusty Challenge Challenge Results......................... ............ .......................... .......................... .......................... ........................... ...................... ........ 4 If At First You Don't Succeed..... ................................................................................. 7 Sennelier Pastel Card- Pros and Cons ....................................................................... 9 Fisher 400 and Clairefontaine Pastelmat Compared ................................................ 11 Canson Mi-Teintes, My Pros And No Cons! No Cons! ............................................................. 13 Pastelcard and Sansfix ............................................................................................. 14 Home Made Pastel Grounds .................................................................................... 16 Schmincke Pastel Primer........................... ............. ........................... .......................... .......................... .......................... ........................ ........... 18 “Grabability” “Grabability” .............................................................................................................. 19 Pastel Papers and Surfaces, .................................................................................... 20 An Overview .......................... ............. .......................... .......................... .......................... .......................... ........................... .......................... ................. ..... 20 Workshops by PGE Members .................................................................................. 21

Cover Cover im age : Concentration, the Fish food

Editorial Scribble

thief, by thief, by Ruth Mann

Welcome to this extended issue dedicated to artist’s reviews artist’s reviews of pastel papers and pastel grounds available in Europe. This special issue will make it easier for you to choose which papers to try, and which fit your style of painting. Maybe you have not found your ideal paper? Clea shows you how to make your own pastel ground. Get Dusty winner Ruth Mann nearly didn’t enter the challenge, as her painting was not going well. In her demo she tells about her struggle and the final choices she made which lead to winning in a very stiff competition with many excellent paintings. The Scribbler Team is taking a well deserved vacation after this extended issue. We will be back in September, September, with new articles and the results of t he Summer Get Dusty challenge.

The Scribbler Team The current team: Charlotte Herczfeld, edits, writes, does layout Ruth Mann , edits, writes, and proof-reads Special thanks to Ryan Evans who volunteered to help with layout.

Contact: scribbler@pastelgu [email protected] ild.com

May the dust be with you,

Charlotte Herczfeld

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Guest Judge: Robert A. Sloan Robert A. Sloan, 57, lives in San Francisco, California with his beloved longhair colorpoint Ari, seen in the photo sharing their favorite armchair. Rob is disabled and lives on Social Security while building a business as writer, artist and art teacher till he can become self supporting again. Ari is 12, undisabled, youthful, muscular and athletic for a cat his age. Neither of these middle aged gents like medical appointments, though Rob doesn't bite or claw his doctors as often. Rob gained the nickname of "The Cat Master" after five solid years of sketching Ari from life and painting his companion feline in pastels or oil pastels every chance he gets. Ari has the reputation of "Most Sketched Feline on WetCanvas." Both of them enjoy yogurt, little things they can grab and a nice cuddle in the comfy chair. Rob's website, http://www.explore-oil-pastels-with-robert-sloan.comis the first and only dedicated informational website on oil pastels besides the Oil Pastel Society's webpage. Rob also maintains several blogs on Blogspot: http://robs-art-supply-reviews.blogspot.com, http://robs-artlessons.blogspot.com, http://robs-daily-painting.blogspot.com(very much on a Health Permitting basis) and http://robs-writing.blogspot.com. Rob paints in a wide variety of mediums but his favorite is pastels of every kind including Pan Pastels. Formerly a street sketcher in New Orleans' French Quarter, he mastered pastels there and went on to expand his subjects into landscapes, florals, still-lifes and of course – cats. Currently Rob specializes in cat portraits on commission and studies landscape painting with an eye to incorporating big cats in his landscapes. His motto is: "I paint better than I used to and not as well as I will."

Rob's best tips for drawing and painting cats Sketch small gestures from life, over and over. Each separate attempt is a new observation revealing more of their form and features. Cats willingly help with this process because even sound asleep, they'll only hold a pose for two minutes before repositioning. For good active poses in reference photos, try selecting stills from a digital video of a cat in motion.

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Get Dusty Challenge Results The winner of the May challenge – Domestic Cats – is Ruth Mann, UK. The prize is a set of 3 pastels from our new sponsor Henri Roché pastels, of La Maison du Pastel.

First place: Concentration: The Fish Food Thief , by Ruth Mann Great originality of concept, pose and title. Drawing skills are brilliant. This cat's weight and musculature are balanced accurately for a dynamic, interesting pose. Notice her far shoulder is raised, it's carrying her weight while the reaching shoulder drops. I thought there was an error in the muzzle shape until I studied my cat's profile in a similar mood. It's her mouth expression. With her nose dipped down like that, her muzzle shape is accurate for a slight indrawn breath of intense concentration. Her gender and mature age are clear from her proportions, a fluffy, sagging belly is perfectly shaped. What made this painting go over the top on "Drawing" is perfect cat anatomy down to the subtlest details of expression. Composition is striking. Tone and value are used to give wonderful depth, the light catching her tail and far ear help give the painting more distance. Color harmony is j ust right, warm and cool complements balancing with saturation in the light. A lovely gradient that draws emphasis to her face and paw. Edges are handled beautifully, creating a soft fluffy texture to her fur and a shiny gleam to the ceramic fish food pot. The reflections on the pot help draw me into the painting.

See cover for larger picture.

Not one stroke is wasted in this painting. Subtle details like the shadow under the bowl or her elegantly fine eyebrow whiskers are only noticeable on later viewings, but contribute to emotional impact. Her whisker gesture is part of that immediate, visceral recognition of her mood. There's dynamic tension: if you i nterrupt her, the bowl may skitter across t he room spraying flakes everywhere. If you don't, she'll finish her motion and sit there daintily licking her stolen treat off her paw.

A special treat – comments for all entries! Robert has generously commented on all entries. Log into the website of the Pastel Guild of Europe and go to the member’s Forum, category Competitions, to see the comments of the entries which are not shown in this issue. http://pastelguild.com

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Second place: Bob's Happy Trio by Gillian Lait

Black fur and white fur are the hardest to paint. These three charmers are all in a good mood, all anatomically accurate and brimming with personality. I love t hat little tortie looking silly in the lower left, while the black cat's Innocent Look suggests future mischief. All three are engaged with each other, visually and emotionally connected. Lazy Girl, House Mother and Mischief Maker are all happy in distinctly different moods. This painting nearly won because of how difficult a multiple animal subject is and how well Gillian carried that off.

Third place: A Place in the Sun by Dorothea Schultz The title says it all - this painting is about the light. Painterly, glorious light pours over white and gray patches consistently. I liked the weight and mass of the body. Cats sleep in different ways and this one's scrunching up into the sun patch with a hind leg tucked under her chin - an odd, dynamic pose that shifts the muscles in her thigh and changes the curve of her back beautifully. Dorothea resisted the urge to normalize the shape of her muzzle or move her tail she's digging her chin into the fur of her tail and leg so that it changes the shape of her face.

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Honourable mentions

Enchanting Eyes

Cat Tag

Fire and Ice

by Yvonne Jensen

by Charlotte Herczfeld

by Sharron Blackmore

It is simple and powerful. Good contrast and values, good drawing and a dramatic composition grabbed me. The expression on this tabby's face is full of emotion. She's captured in a moment of pleading for something she wants and I don't want to deny her the treat. This is a grown cat making herself look kittenish, ears front and turned to push together to look bigger in relation to her head, eyes very wide, mouth in a sweet little pout, head angle turned to make her face look dainty. She's saying please! Every detail of her facial expressions adds to that emotion, so this tabby girl made it to my short list on pure visceral impact.

Gorgeous color and light is what I always see from Charlie, a peach fade cat seen by sunset light outdoors is a wonderful moment. Her dark eyes are very dramatic and natural, I've seen some peach cats or ginger tabbies have very dark eyes. That paw from the second cat coming up on the deck is endearing. I didn't see that at first and it made me laugh, the sunset-watcher is about to get pounced on! This painting also tells a story, a lovely one about an area so safe it's all right to let your cats out into the yard without worrying about wildlife or traffic.

Composition is interesting, a tight macro crop I've seen more often in floral paintings. "Touch me and get clawed, I want to play rough!" is the story. Sink your bare hand into that adorable fluffy tummy and you will bleed. Every tangle is natural and accurate, that fur texture is incredible. Her odd eyes are striking and luminous. Good mastery of edges and especially textures between the short face fur and luxurious tangled chest fluff with soft paw and forehead in between. Purrfect realism capturing a side of cats that rarely gets painted.

See larger images, and all entries, in the May Get Dusty Gallery Reminder: To avoid disqualification, do state the actual size of a painting you enter in the contest. Add size as a comment if you remember the rule after entering.

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If at first you don't succeed..... by Ruth Mann

I wanted to tell you about my experience with the painting of my winning Get Dusty entry, Concentration, the Fish food thief .

painting. My plan was to make it a loose, colourful portrait. You know, the sort with very little detail and seemingly mad colours which, somehow, just looks right. As often happens I lost the shape of the profile in progress. So I popped it into windows paint and just drew a line to remind me approximately how the profile should look. Note the area to the right of the Cat's back foot. There was a shape there, orange in the photo below, which was brightly lit in the ref photo. I knew this would be a challenge. (Picture 1.) With the nose remodelled I carried on with the fur. At this point I was getting agitated with it as it was not going at all to

Top: picture 1 Middle: picture 2 Below: the finished painting

Sometimes art is hard and one feels like giving up, on a particular piece, or even altogether! This was one such piece for me. I sketched the Cat out from the ref photo and once I was happy with my drawing I started applying colour, exaggerating the hues and tones in my 7

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The Pastel Scribbler June 2012 several more hours, and some brushing off, I called it a day. (Picture 2.)

The next day I looked at it, stuck it on top of the chest in the studio in disgust and started something else. No way would this be entered in the Dusty! It was more than a week later when I started thinking about doing it again but couldn't bring myself to start from scratch. So I just picked it up and looked at it again. The only part I loved was the near ear but, on reflection, the face, tail, background and bowl were OK. The rest was just not working. I decided that it was worth giving it another go. So I did some brushing off and before I knew it I was well into it again and brought it to a finish that day. What to do with that annoying shape at the edge? Crop it off!

See more paintings by Ruth Mann at http://ruthmannpastelart.com

What I have learned from this not to fight my natural style of working if a piece does not go right, stand back from it emotionally as well as physically for a while

plan. There was the problem too of what to do with that shape to the right of the rear paw. If I “lost” it completely she looked even fatter than she was....like a round barrel! But I couldn't have it brightly lit and drawing attention of course. After

apply a little lateral thinking to compositional challenges if at first you don't succeed...........

The Get Dusty Schedule September 2012, Category: Landscape, Challenge: an Interior "scape" October 2012, Category: Portrait, Challenge: a Portrait with a mood, convey an emotion. November 2012, Category: Still Life, Challenge: Items with Complementary colours .

The Apprentice Challenge will follow on from the Dusty, one month later. The AC subject for September is Animals, Domestic Cats, and the May AC is extended over summer.

See pasteguild.com for details and rules of the member contests

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The cards are available in 14 different colours as illustrated; you can also see the surface texture.

Sennelier Pastel Card- pros and cons by Ryan Evans

My personal favourites are the Sienna (3 rd on left) and light blue grey (3rd on right) as these give me a nice warm or cool ground depending on what I’m painting.

I’ve been using Sennelier Pastel Card ever since a revelatory experience some years back that made me completely re-evaluate the medium of pastel painting. I’d first used cheap chalky pastels on cartridge paper that was just as cheap- you can imagine the disappointment seeing my painting literally falling off the page in front of me!

The cons

Later a good teacher taught the value of a quality pastel stick and a better paper. This was Daler Rowney’s Murano paper - holds a few layers of pastel, cheap, readily available and a step in the right direction. I still felt I was drawing and not painting . At this time oils and acrylics were my medium of choice due to the range of mark-making, brushwork and expression achievable.

The one major drawback with this card is what happens if it gets wet. If under-painting is a normal part of your pastel painting practice then this paper will not suit you. When wet the vegetable and cork grit lifts off the paper and will take the pastel with it. There are other papers out there that are better suited to this approach. That said the 14 colour range does give a decent starting coloured ground for most paintings. The generous tooth also allows you to do a dry under-painting- I tend to use Conte or harder pastels like Rembrandt, Daler Rowney or Winsor & Newton to block in. One other issue to note is to be careful if you are blowing excess pastel dust off as even a tiny speck of moisture will show up as a dark spot on the painting that can be tricky to fix. I recommend tapping the board to remove excess pastel instead (it’s healthier for you too!).

During a chance trip to a new art shop I was looking at the different brands and came across Sennelier Pastel Card pastel card. I decided to take a chance and have not been disappointed. It’s not the cheapest option on the market but I’ll share my thoughts, pros and cons to let you decide to try it!

While the grit is less abrasive than sanded paper, excessive blending and rubbing will result in some of this coming off the surface. I’ve also had some occasions when using some pastel pencil (if they are particularly hard) where the surface can be slightly scored if you press too hard.

Technical details

Pastel Card pastel card is pH neutral archival quality and comes as 200lb (400gsm) boards. The texture is slightly abrasive like a sanded paper. The ‘grit’ however is actually vegetable flakes and cork fixed evenly to the surface to create an ideal textured surface to grip pastel.

The abrasive surface will quickly eat up your really soft pastels as there’s a lot of tooth to fill and the card is amazing at grabbing and holding the pigment. I recommend reserving super-soft pastels for the final layers of a painting.

The card comes in the following sizes and recommended retail prices ( www.globalartsupplies.co.uk ): 

65cm x 50cm (25.5” x 19.5”) £6.50/€8.10

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80cm x 60cm (31.5” x 23.5”) £10.95/€13.65

The pros

The choice of colours available in this range is really pretty good. Sennelier have basically selected two sets of seven colours, one being warm and the other being cool. The warm colours stick to ochres and earth reds, whereas the cool colours are nice blue-greys. I find all of them usable as they’re not oversaturated in colour in a way that would compete with the pastel, but will provide a nice contrast if left to show through. This is good because if you are

Pads of 12 sheets are available with assorted colours. You get two sheets of a selection of the six colours:    


24cm x 16cm (9.5” x 6”) £14.95/€18.63 32cm x 24cm (12.5” x 9.5”) £21.95/€27.35 40cm x 30cm (15.75” x 12”) £33.50/€41.75 60cm x 40cm (23.5” x 18”) £69.95/€87.17

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In this example, you can see a range of painting techniques applied together creating a lively surface. I don’t think this variety can be achieved on ‘nonsanded’ papers like Canson Mi-Teintes.

The thickness of the cards is also great as they don’t need to be mounted onto mat board when framing. I guess this thickness makes the sheet more expensive but will save you money in the long run. The main advantage I’ve found with this card is the range of mark-making and effects that you can produce with it. To me it really feels like you are truly painting with pastels and not drawing . I came to pastels after learning to paint in oils and acrylic and with this paper I find I can achieve the same effects and approach a painting in the same way. I like to have a range of texture, brushwork and edges in a painting to give it variety and interest. I’ll try to show you what I mean.

Here you can see some of the ground showing through (Sienna) to provide a nice contrast with the greens. I’ve managed to build this painting up in multiple layers of pastel. The tooth in the card will easily take up to five layers provided you start with harder sticks and reserve the super soft sticks to the end. There are passages where I’ve scumbled pastel on top of other layers to allow the layer below to show through. ‘Dry brush’ effects can also be replicated. Finally you can see areas where super soft pastels (e.g. Sennelier, Unison, Schmincke) are used with a bit of pressure to achieve an impasto effect with pastel. The card has no problem gripping this and holding it. In fact the tooth is so good at holding pastel I don’t need to use fixative at all, I have the confidence that the mark I make will stay. I love this as for me fixative dulls and darkens the colour of pastels even when used lightly.

The surface while abrasive is quite forgiving. If you’re blending with fingers it won’t hurt you like some of the sanded papers can! It feels slightly soft to the touch. You can achieve soft blended effects using your fingers. This is great for getting soft edges, as illustrated above.

If the tooth gets filled with pastel, or where corrections are needed, you can easily brush off the pastel using bristle brushes and there will be no loss of tooth.

If you’ve not tried Sennelier Pastel Card yet, I strongly urge you to give it a go and see what it can do for you. 10

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means, there is an obvious stroke mark instead of the hit and miss effect I find with Fisher. The paper grabs the pastel and you simply cannot finger blend a thin first layer. It just won't move! However, I use kitchen towel to blend the first layer, if I want to. There is, of course, the option not to blend at all. I should add that I LOVE the feel of the first pastel strokes on a piece of PastelMat! When I discipline myself, I again use the harder soft pastels for my first layers, but have been known to use softies, like Unison or Sennelier, where the colours were what I wanted.

Fisher 400 and Clairefontaine PastelMat Compared by Ruth Mann I use both of the above, almost exclusively, for my pastel work. One (Fisher) is a sanded paper comparable to the American papers, Wallis and Uart. The other (PastelMat) is a completely different type of surface, smooth to the touch – there are no comparables (yet). Both can be used in similar ways even though they are quite different.

Underpainting

Both papers are suitable for wet underpaintings, using watercolour, Gouache, very thin acrylic paint or pastel brushed or sprayed with water or alcohol products. These types of underpainting hardly affect the feel of the subsequent layers of pastel. Fisher Because the initially grabs more pigment it will give an underpainting with more depth, when using pastel, than with one layer on the PastelMat.

Drawing/sketching

Drawing on Fisher 400, with either a pastel pencil or a hard pastel like Conté or Cretacolour, is easy but don't expect fine lines, unless your pencil/stick is very sharp and you apply hardly any pressure. It is possible to erase lines with a normal pencil eraser or a putty eraser. On PastelMat finer lines can be achieved and it is still possible to erase the marks made very effectively, brushing off the residue which does not adhere to the paper.

For my underpaintings I invariably use pastel and water. Subsequent layers

Both papers will take several layers of pastel. The lighter it is applied, or the harder the pastel, the more layers one can achieve. It is my experience, and I have heard others agree, that Fisher can take more layers overall than PastelMat. Once there are a few layers down both papers are similar to work on – with one important exception. Again, in my experience, when there are a few layers on PastelMat it is impossible to use most pastel pencils to make a mark on top of the pastel. Instead the pencil will cut a groove through the pastel already laid down without showing much of its own colour. However, on the Fisher, with a sharp pastel pencil and a light touch, one can add detail and thin lines, say Whiskers on a Cat, with the pastel pencil marks appearing to stay on top. It follows that more detail can actually be achieved on Fisher in the final layers than can be achieved on PastelMat, unless there are few layers, they are

First layer

I find that the Fisher grabs more pastel in the first layer, but not smoothly or consistently. Because of that I find it quite hard to use Fisher without blending the initial layer. This must be done with care as the paper is rough, being sanded. No fingers, unless you want to lose some skin! No paper towels, unless you want fragments of paper towel adhering to the paper! I use the little polystyrene packing “nuggets” to very gently blend the first layer into the paper to give a smooth look. The alternative is to use a wet underpainting, see below. I find it best to use the harder soft pastels for the initial layer or layers. Ones like Rembrandt, Faber Castell or Art Spectrum. The PastelMat is a different story. The first layer, using the pastel on its side, glides on and, while not giving complete coverage by any 11

Pastelguild.com very thinly applied, or a very soft pastel, like Schminke, is used with a thin and light application.


remaining pastel into the tooth. I can then do a new painting with, sometimes, a very interesting underpainting! I hear that pastel can actually be washed off PastelMat but I have never tried this so cannot comment.

Colour Fisher 400 comes in one colour, a neutral sand colour. PastelMat comes in 8 colours, from white through to quite a dark grey. The colour does not matter too much to me because, with the Fisher, I usually do an underpainting to establish my base colours. However, if I do not wish to underpaint I find that there is usually a colour amongst the range in PastelMat to inspire me. I cannot analyse my choice of colour but I know that, for example, I will choose the bright gold colour for many landscapes, especially those with a lot of blue in them. I will choose the warm brownish grey for portraits, maybe because it is mid value and not too intense a colour. If I use the white I usually do an underpainting, simply because the white confuses my choice of pastel colours!

Fisher is an interesting paper to use for landscapes. If I can resist the urge to blend the first layers the paper can assist me in creating a natural look to trees and grasses for example. This is because the first layer of pastel does not go on evenly. The next few layers will also find peaks and troughs in the paper and this gives a nice variegated look, ideal for the natural world. This is a technique I have not yet mastered but I'm working on it. Having said that I often use PastelMat for landscapes simply because of the range of colours. For portraits I find the PastelMat gives me more control over the appearance of the initial layers and I find that, by layering, my colours will start to blend together more easily than on the rougher surface of the Fisher. Conclusion

Other points

For my particular style, the PastelMat is the best, especially due to my addiction to t he feel of the first strokes of pastel on the paper! I still happily use the Fisher quite often but I don't get quite the same kick from that.

I don't use fixative on either paper, between layers or at the end. Fixative can, of course, be used on both. Unless one has applied too many layers so there is pastel dust floating on the top, all that is needed is a few sharp taps on the back of the paper to remove any loose particles. The piece can then be safely framed and will not shed any particles onto the mount unless it is mistreated, stored face down or knocked about....you know, like they do when you put a painting in an exhibition!

For those of you who have tried neither, or only one, of these papers my strong recommendation is that you try both as that is the only way you will see which suits your style best.

Both can have pastel brushed off very successfully to free up more tooth for further application. In the (not uncommon for me) event of a failed painting, both papers can be recycled and re-used. I brush off as much pastel as I can (saving it to eventually make some grey pastel sticks) and then use a damp brush to push the

Editor’s comment: The Fisher 400 is quite similar to the US Wallis Professional and the Uart 400 sanded papers.

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The Pastel Scribbler June 2012 wish to paint, so the painting will be livelier, and the colours dancing.

Canson Mi-Teintes, my pros and n o cons!

Which side of the paper? Always the flat one for me! Two options: either I use a few strokes –and then I don’t wish to see the paper’s texture – or I decide I will blend the pastels and then I also need a smooth surface.

by Marie-France Oosterhof I paint exclusively on Canson Mi-Teintes and therefore I know these papers as well as I love them. I will tell you why.

Which kind of pastels? I used to start with charcoal for my initial drawing, then hard pastel sticks - Rembrandt usually- after that Girault or Unison, and at last Schmincke, the very soft ones. This means that I don’t do more than five layers. If I need more I’ll use fixative at one stage, but really never on the last layer (just a good smack at the back of the sheet of paper to get rid of the excess dust). My experience is that any kind of pastel stick will work with the Canson Mi-Teintes. If I want to colour the paper with the pastel – painting backgrounds for example – I’ll use Rembrandt, never softer, so I can go on painting with some more layers.

The characteristics of this paper are: Available in sheets 50 x 65cm, or in blocks 24 x 32cm or 29.7 x 42cm, the weight is 160g/ m2. The paper has two different surfaces: one smooth, the other one with a texture looking like small “cells”. Colours: 60 colours, with colouring agents added as needed to the pulp. Composition: 55% cotton, acid free (the black is not acid free). 

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Canson Mi-Teintes and water They are really good friends! If I wish to do an under-painting (acrylic, watercolour etc), I tape the paper safely onto a strong board and the paper won’t buckle at all when drying. I have to report that once, when framing, I wanted to stretch the painting at the back of the passe-partout (mat). So I humidified the back of the painting before taping it: it worked perfectly, the colours did not melt or blend. Well, let’s just say don’t try this method with a Degas painting...!

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Which one do I use? Size and colours: As I said, I paint only on Canson MiTeintes, as I have tried two different sanded papers but they did not suit my way of painting. My choice always goes to the large sheets, and mostly the two grey colours: gris fume or gris chine. Painting on those medium greys is very handy for me as the bright colours are immediately bright and the dark ones immediately dark. As I use really few strokes this is very important for me: blocking in the values very early on in the painting is fundamental. Sometimes though I use different colours, choosing the lavender blue ones if I paint a landscape, a seascape, or a sky, always for the same reasons: as I use a few strokes the paper colour will be part of the painting. When painting a still life my choice will be a complementary colour to the background I

Some more pros These sheets are really light, very handy to carry in the portfolio and what about the price? Really cheap for us in France, so not a problem if I have to throw away the one I painted on a bad day… I obviously do not find any inconvenience with this paper, in my opinion it offers all the qualities I need for my way of painting. The history of Canson papers is a very, very old French story, everything began in 1557… (Learn more about this historical industry on their site www.canson.com). You know Anita Stoll and Tony Allain, both talented painters, use mostly Canson MiTeintes as well.

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Pastel Card and Sansfix by Charlotte Herczfeld

These papers are of the so called sanded papers, which are papers primed with glue or gesso with some sort of grit mixed into it. Both have a grit which is not abrasive, and you can finger blend without risking blood. Pastel Card

Sennelier’s Pastel Card (also called La Carte) has grit which is made out of cork and vegetable matter. When you paint, some of the excess grit comes loose, but there is no visible effect on the surface. The surface is applied to a cardboard, so the paper is sturdy.

F resas, by the author. Pastel Card handles smooth, impasto, and detail well.

It is fine for detail work. In the picture Fresas, you can see how very smooth the plate is, the fine detail on the berries and the plate, plus the more impasto and painterly table cloth in the background. There is no need for fixative with Pastel Card.

The paper takes pastels very well, in many layers. There is some texture, but it is not pronounced once you have a few layers of pastel on it. It comes in many colours and several sizes. You can get a very even and smooth look on this paper. Many who paint in high realism like this paper, and so do artists who use a more impressionistic application.

There is really only one disadvantage to Pastel Card: it is “hydrophobic”. You cannot use any wet underpainting on it. Beware of sneezing or blowing so a drop of saliva falls on the paper – each little droplet of moisture will dissolve the glue that keeps the grit on the paper. If this happens, be sure to not touch the paper until it has dried thoroughly and the glue has settled back into its solid state.

Sansfix

Sansfix texture is good for ‘instant’ foliage, as in the weeping willow detail. To the left is a close-up showing how pastel goes onto the aper.

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The unusual grit of the Schmincke Sansfix feels like tiny smooth pebbles from the sea. Like Pastel Card, the paper is a card, but Sansfix is a paper that can take a lot of hard handling and painting. The grit stays in place no matter what you do to it, and it handles water very well.

Pastelguild.com It is both textured and has a relatively deep tooth. The pastel strokes go on with an uneven and scumbled look, which is perfect for “instant foliage”. It takes many layers. However, fine lines and details are more difficult to achieve. This is a paper for the more impasto and painterly style.


The extent of the dust that falls off is quite surprising. I had a painting where I had to clean the mat repeatedly, so I put the painting in storage in my studio. Two years later, I checked how the painting had fared. Never before have I seen so much pastel dust on the mat. Normally, a speck or two escapes onto the mat, but this was an avalanche! It would not be good if this happened with a painting a client owns.

Although the name sansfix implies that the pastels need no fixative, I’ve found that this paper’s disadvantage is that it holds on to pigments poorly. Both when you paint and when the painting is framed. You definitely need many applications of fixative to keep the pigments on the surface.

It would be very good if Schmincke could solve this problem, as the paper otherwise is a fine one for you who like texture.

Above: Detail of the mat of a painting on Sansfix. Real idth of the mat is 8 cm. Right: a close-up of the beveled edge of the mat and the large amount of pigment which has fallen off the ainting.

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smaller. The larger the size, the more difficult it will be to get an even layer because the coating will start to dry in the middle of the process. If you plan to apply a white coating, it helps a lot to use a lightly coloured paper, as then you can see better what you're doing, later on!

Home made pastel grounds by Clea Müller If you are not happy with the pastel surfaces available at your local art shop or simply enjoy experimenting with new pastel grounds, why don't you try to make your own supports? It is easier than you think.

Then, you choose the coating you would like to apply. There are several brands of readymade grounds for pastel paintings. These are convenient and give even results, so try out if they give you your ideal pastel surface. I have used the products by Schmincke and Rubens. Ruben's pastel ground is already tinted in grey which helps if you use white paper as a support. Both grounds offer enough grit for the pastel to be applied easily, but the results are not really a “sanded” surface. There are other products by Lascaux, Nerchau, Art Spectrum and Golden which I haven't tried out yet. Left: with marble dust Am See.

I admire many pastel paintings by American master pastellists and their effects on sanded papers, but none of those surfaces are available in the shops nearby. The expense of mail ordering these papers from the US discouraged me. After reading Alan Flattmann's book The Art of Pastel Painting , I have decided try to make my own sanded surfaces and find my own techniques to go with them.

Below: with quartz, Schatten (I ri s).

My supports end up being slightly abrasive and too rough for very fine details so they force me to use a looser style. They “eat” up more pastel than normal pastel paper by Hahnemühle, Canson or Fabriano, but less than Sennelier's Pastel Card or Schmincke's Sansfix pastel paper. There is no problem finger blending pastels on them. If you are interested in a slightly more granular surface, I can recommend using a homemade mixture of gesso (1/3), water (1/3) and marble dust (1/3).

To start preparing your own pastel ground, choose a board or paper suitable for wet techniques. If you are concerned about the archival quality of your final product, use archival paper or board. Otherwise, you can use any leftovers at hand. My favourite supports are oil painting paper or medium to heavy watercolour paper with light texture. The paper I found most suitable, easily available and not too expensive was Hahnemühle Britannia Water Colour paper. I have also used paper with more or no texture, just bear in mind that this will have effects on the final texture of the surface! I use sheets sized 50 x 65/70cm or

For more tooth, try increasing the amount of marble dust or use pumice powder or quartz powder instead. Pumice and quartz powders are available in different grades. Experiment which will give you the result you like best. Be careful not to inhale the dust, but mix it quickly with water, because it might be harmful. If your local art store does not carry these gritty substances, you can mail order through Kremer Pigmente GmbH & Co. KG (www.kremer-pigmente.de ). 16

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Left: Materials required.

For a home-made light texture without the feeling of sanded paper, try using just gesso or acrylic paint. Vary the amount of water you add according to your needs. The thicker the mixture, the more pronounced your texture will be.

Right:Mixing the ground. Middle: Applying ith a roller.

With the mixture ready, you apply at least two layers of coating on your surface. For this, you can use a synthetic paint roller to apply one coating from left to right and a second from top to bottom of the paper. This will give you a surface where your coating is evenly spread out.

ochre, and most often I use the same Rembrandt pastel stick to tint the paper, in order to keep the colour consistent. After drying, I spray it with fixative. This allows me to keep the original colour even when I choose to wipe pastel dust off during the painting process!

Alternatively, for more pronounced texture you can use a (cheap) big brush to brush the paint on in a similar way. This will give you a pattern of lines (which are usually not too even). If you prefer a random pattern of lines, you brush it on accordingly. You can even apply the coat along the lines of a sketch or an under-painting for certain directions in your texture. For this, I prefer to use transparent gesso to see what I'm doing. Liquitex clear gesso is ideal for this. In any case, work quickly! The mixture tends to dry very fast. Let the support dry thoroughly afterwards and straighten it out under some weight for a day or two if necessary.

Have fun experimenting! Just make sure to take note of the mixture you used at the back of the paper for future reference!

For further reference on suitable supports and gritty substances Clea recommends Richard McKinley's blogs on these topics: (http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/pastel /pastel-pointers-homegrown-pastel-surfaces part-1

The nice thing with home-made supports is that you can prepare them in any colour you like! You can use acrylic paint in your favourite colour instead of gesso already for your mixture. Or you can customize the support at a later stage with watercolour or pastel wiped on with a wet brush. Then again, it's your choice to apply the colour as evenly as possible throughout the surface or with any type of gradation, pattern or underpainting you might like. One of my favourite paper colours is light

and http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/pastel/ pastel-pointers-homegrown-surfaces-part-2.

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What I like most is that I can use the pastel primer undiluted and produce different surfaces by applying it with brushes, sponges or painting knifes, or by treating it with different materials like scrunched paper or whatever before it dries. The structured surface that I get this way gives paintings a loose and painterly style, which I love for some projects. By the way, this effect can be an aid for those who want to leave the “copying” kind of painting style and search for more expressive or spontaneous methods.

Schmincke Pastel Primer by Dorothee Röhler The pastel primer from Schmincke is a very variable ground which you can use on different materials like wood, metal, cardboard or canvas – and I think you could find even more. As you see here, I paint it on the passepartout cardboards (matboard) which I have cut out when framing. I really like to no longer waste this expensive and high-quality stuff. It is possible to colour it with acrylic colours before application. On absorbent materials Schmincke suggest that the support is prepared with primer on both sides, because cardboard tends to bend when drying. I avoid that and weigh the cardboard down with books or such after the primer is dry enough (this takes only about 10 minutes), and leave the books there until the cardboard is completely dry. The pastel primer is rather viscous, and in order to get a smooth surface you have to dilute it with water. Then it gives you a surface very similar to sanded paper like Art Spectrum’s Colourfix.

I find it very lasting, a small amount covers big areas, and I buy it at Gerstäcker paper for 14,99€ /500gr. It is worth an attempt if you would like to experience it!

When it has dried it is water resistant and you can do under paintings with acrylic paint or watercolours. It holds the pastel pigments well. You can rub and smudge the colour if you want and it grabs several layers. Fixation is no problem but not necessary as long as you don't do too many layers.

Left: Rolled on texture Top right: Brushed on texture with swirls Bottom Right: Texture detail shots

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“Grabability” How well does the paper hold pigments while you paint? by Charlotte Herczfeld Most of us who paint on an easel probably keep some device under it to catch the dust that falls off the painting while we paint – a folded piece of paper, foil, or a trough of some kind. I began to notice that the amount of fallen dust varied between papers, and decided to compare how much. Method

The method used is simple. I took the dust and rubbed it into a long strip of sanded paper, and measured the length of how much paper the dust covered. This is not a thorough examination, but it still gives some indication of how well the papers hold onto the pigments during the painting process. The pastels I used were a mixture of mainly Rembrandt, Unison, ArtSpectrum, Sennelier, and Schmincke. For some samples the Panpastels were used. Details of the swatches

The top picture shows fall-off from paintings of the size 30x40 cm (12x16”), and the bottom picture shows paintings made in A4 size (about 8.5x12”), and the last two are painted with Panpastels. The Fisher 400 grabs the pigments beautifully, and surprisingly there is a mere 1,5 cm difference between an A4 and a painting of the double size. Clairefontaine PastelMat also holds on to the pigments really well, with only 12 cm for the larger painting. Both papers continue to hold the pigment once the paintings are matted (passe-partout) and framed. More surprising was ArtSpectrum Colourfix, which gave all of 22 cm from the smaller A4. Once matted and framed, there is a small fall-off, but it ceases after a while. The Panpastels stuck best to the paper, but the comparison isn’t entirely fair, as a lot of the dust lodges in the sponge tools which are used to apply the Panpastels, and the dust is wiped off of the tools onto a paper towel.

brands. You will find your favourites which work for your method, and it may not matter to you how much pastel is wasted, as you make your own pastels from the fallen off dust. It does give lovely colour-biased neutrals!

As usual, different results come from different combinations of paper and pastel 19

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use fixative, they do not take many layers of pastels. In my opinion, these are not the best papers for beginners, but in the hands of a seasoned painter they perform very well. These papers come in many colours.

Pastel papers and surfaces, an overview by Charlotte Herczfeld Papers can be divided into four major categories, and then we can add the category of Other surfaces. 

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Some of these papers have a too pronounced structure, which can be sanded down with ordinary sandpaper. Then the paper will perform a bit more like velour, and take a few layers more than the untreated paper does.

Sanded papers, with a hard gritty surface, added to it. They can be coarser or finer. Papers with a soft non-abrasive surface added to it. Plain pastel papers, where the paper itself is the surface. Other papers, as watercolour/aquarelle papers, charcoal paper, printing papers. Other surfaces, as for example Linen canvas

Generally, the thicker the paper is, the better it holds on to pastel. Other papers

They may be just what you need, for your style. I recommend that you experiment with different papers. Generally, look for papers with some degree of tooth, as it is more important than structure. Pastel pigments tend to rest on the top of structure. So a cold-pressed rough watercolour paper will give you a fight, unless you do a wet underpainting first, and then you can create beautiful effects with the pastels where the underpainting shines through. Pastels are a wonderful way to save failed watercolour paintings. To gain more tooth, you can prime the watercolour painting with a clear gesso with some grit in it.

Sanded papers

Normally, the hard grit is either mixed into the binder, or strewn on the binder. The former tend to have a less deep tooth as ArtSpectrum Colourfix has, while the latter can be rather aggressive, like Fisher 400. They both hold many layers of pastel. The more aggressive the tooth, the more layers they take. The sandpapery papers tend to be sand-coloured, while those with grit mixed into gesso can be had in many colours.

Linen canvas

Often they come with gesso already applied, and they can be more or less structured. Some artists apply a pastel primer over the existing gesso, to gain more tooth.

Softer surfaces

Here we find papers like Clairefontaine PastelMat, Sennelier PastelCard (LaCarte), and velour papers. All of them take many layers of pastel, but the only one who allows for early blending is Pastel Card, and it is the paper that holds a hard edge best, the others tend to give softer edges. All hold on to harder pastels well, but the velour papers tend to not be amenable to finish layers with very soft pastels, as that layer may simply slide off. These papers are made in many colours.

Tooth, and Structure: Tooth is how well the paper ‘bites’ and grabs onto the pastel pigments. Tooth is in the texture of the surface, with its grains and spaces between grains. A deep tooth has deeper spaces. Compare with ordinary printer paper, which has virtually no tooth at all.

Pastel papers

The structure of these papers is had by letting the paper pulp dry on cloth or a metal grid. The structures of these get indelibly imprinted in the paper. Papers of the type Ingres have a striped pattern, while Canson Mi-Teintes has a structure like honeycombs. The papers have structure, but little tooth. Both sides of the paper can be used for painting, and one side is usually more smooth than the other. Unless you

Structure (can also be called texture) is the regular or irregular pattern of the surface of the paper.

You can have a paper which gives a very smooth painting as the structure is minimal, but the tooth can be deep. And vice versa, a paper can have lots of structure, but little tooth.

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Workshops by PGE members Charlotte Herczfeld Paint the light outdoors Stockholm, Sweden

Malcolm Jarvis 30 september - 6 october 2012 Burgundy, France http://www.malcolmjarvisart.co.uk/

Workshop 2012 A : 23 – 24 July Workshop 2012 B : 11 – 12 August charlotteherczfeld.com

Get Dusty and Apprentice Challenge Announcement Because of the summer holiday period over the next few months the Get Dusty competition starting in June will be extended over the summer period with a closing date of 25th August. The theme for the competition is.....Free Choice!! What's more, for the extended competition members may submit two entries if they wish. For this period the Apprentice Challenge for May is extended over the summer. Apprentices are encouraged to enter the Get Dusty. Go ahead, there's nothing to lose! Apprentices, for your Domestic Cats you have lots of time until the September 25th deadline.

Recent and ongoing conversations i n the member’s Forum on the PGE website :

- Tips for composition - Photo Editor tricks - Plein Air tips + show us your first one (and last, and inbetween) - Peer advice for member’s paintings Log in and join in!

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