The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

[Skriv text]

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

In this issue
Editorial Scribble ...................................................................................................... 2
Get Dusty Challenge Results ................................................................................... 3
Meet The Get Dusty Winner: Sharron Blackmore .................................................. 6
Sharron Shares Her Method For Painting Fur ........................................................ 9
How To Make New Pastels From Crumbs, Bits, Nubbins, And Dust.................. 11

Cover image: Contemplation,

by Sharron Blackmore

Editorial Scribble
It is lovely to see you all again after the
summer holidays.
In this issue, you meet Get Dusty winner
Sharron Blackmore, who tells her story of how
she stumbled into pastel painting.

The Scribbler Team

Painting fur has its challenges, and Sharron

shows us a way to achieve that glossy or curly
softness, by building on a basic coat of pastel
with the correct values, on page 9.

The current team:

Charlotte Herczfeld, edits, writes, does layout
Ruth Mann, edits, writes, and proof-reads

I am generally more than happy leaving the

messy job of making pastels to the experts who
really know the tricky business of balancing
binders and pigments. But there are a few
times when I do some of the work: When I
have collected lots of bits and crumbs from
sticks, heaps of dust which has fallen off a
painting, or when I want a custom-mixed
stick to get a colour which is not in that
brands range. Page 11.

Contact: scribbler@pastelguild.com

May the dust be with you,

Charlotte Herczfeld

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Get Dusty Challenge Results

The winner of the April challenge Old Shoes is Ryan Evans, UK. The prize
is a set of 3 pastels from our new sponsor Henri Roch pastels, of La Maison
du Pastel.

First place: Contemplation,

by Sharron Blackmore
(See cover for larger version.)
The Jury says: There is a wealth of wisdom in these
eyes, natures own wisdom. The rendering of the fur
and the bare skin on the ears are very well done. The
warm orange in the fur is exactly the right amount to
give the painting both warmth and stillness. The
artist has used the background well by increasing
contrast where the action is (the face and eyes) and
lowered contrast in areas which are of less
importance, and makes good use of lost and found
edges. The handling of the fur is excellent,
particularly at the ridge which frames the face. The
artist says one thing with the painting, and it is
eloquent indeed. Very well done.

Second place:
Magic Hour, by Eve Miller
The Jury says: The artist has chosen an extra long format, and balanced it well by letting the sky
dominate and keeping the beautifully dark water and the land mass to a minimum. Bright and intense
is balanced by darker muted colours. The layered colours give that extra glow to the sky.

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Shared Third place: Water tank in the evening sun
by Kerstin Birk
The Jury says: has
conveyed the evening
mood in a marvelous
way. The pretty
scenery with the
evening sun is
beautifully balanced
by the obviously
manmade water tank.
The values are very
well balanced. A good
example of making a
beautiful painting with
an object regarded as
rather ugly. Beauty is
in the artists eye and
hand.

Shared Third place:

Green Striped,
by Steffi Decker
The Jury says: The warm
green in the apple in the
midst of the cold green
stripes in the cloth is so
well handled. The wraps
with its warm shadows
give the painting interest
and life. The artist has
gone beyond the reference
photo and added
enlivening colours and
reflected light to
otherwise flat and murky
areas. Excellent high
realism.

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Finalists
See
larger
images
in the
Summer
2012
Get
Dusty
Gallery

Embarrassed

Mad Man

by Jim Humphreys

by Ole Hedeager

The Jury says: A playful (!) approach

where a loose handling makes a fine
contrast to the geometrical elements. The
apple as the only splash of colour really
pops. When you want to give a strong and
unambiguous message, a central
placement of the area of interest is
especially efficient. It is balanced by the
light coming from the left gradating to
darker at the right. There is just enough
difference between left and right overall
to give life to the painting. The notes are
suggested just enough. This artist has
taken a difficult subject and done well
with it.

The Jury says: A very skilfully made

portrait painted in sparse colours. The eyes
penetrate your very soul and are even a bit
scary. The different textures are painted
successfully in this vignette, where the
blurred edge at the chest area gives a good
fading into the background. The light is
handled very well.

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Meet the Get Dusty Winner: Sharron

Blackmore
Interviewed by Charlotte Herczfeld
How did you get started in pastels?
I hurt my foot while dog walking and was
told to stay off my feet. Great....going on
holiday with my husband and dogs and I was
going to have to sit and twiddle my thumbs for
a week. Well, to cut a short story shorter, that
is how I started painting, and that was three
years ago. I had tried in the past, several times
but never with any success as I just didn't
know what to do or for what reason.
What changed? I do believe that you have
to be in the right place at the right time and this
was my right time, even if it was due to a
painful injury. Pastel I had tried years ago but I
now discovered pastel pencils and fell in love.
I still use soft pastels and also harder square
ones too.

http://www.abrushwithanimals.com

Being in the middle of building work,

pastels were perfect to just pick up and put
down when needed and I never wanted to use
anything else. I picked up oils to learn more
about colour mixing and effects and my work
in both mediums are worked very similarly.
Do you paint from life, or do you use
reference material? What do you aim at
capturing on paper?
As 99% of my paintings are of animals and
generally portrait type although not always, I
have to use photos. I do work from the photos
and crop on the computer for the best
composition, so I rarely do thumbnails. My
main focus is the expression and emotion of
the animal. I am drawn to capturing what we
think of as the fleeting thought passing through
the animals mind. Backgrounds I only include
if necessary, otherwise it detracts from the
main area of focus and I want that focus firmly
on the animal. I would rather create an
atmospheric backdrop than a landscape,
although I have done those too.
Which papers do you prefer, what works
best for your technique?
I sometimes use Velour and also Fisher
400 and also Uart, but Pastelmat seems to be
the one I use the most.

Far Away

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

You say you work from photos.
What is the best way to view them,
for painting purposes?
My latest art toy is an iPad with
an absolutely brilliant new high
resolution screen. I can blow up
parts of images if I need to and the
colour on screen is absolutely
stunning. No more trying to match
those printers and photos or wasted
ink and paper. I set it up on a table
easel between my pastels and
painting making it fairly easy to
judge colours needed. You can see it
in the photo, it is missing the iPad
though as I took the photo with it. I
take lots of photos throughout my
paintings progress, I find it really
helps to see the painting afresh and I
often turn them into black &white along with
the reference photo for comparison.

In the Forum of the Pastel Guild of Europe

there was recently a discussion about how
artists give titles to their works. Are titles
important to your works?

Do you paint what you like, or do you take

commissions, or both?

Titles are something which often just pop

into my head. Contemplation took eighteen
months waiting for a title, others have one
before they are completed. I love to have a title
before starting a painting but it doesn't always
happen. It also gives me something to let my
mind work on whilst the painting gets
underway. It is in my mind from the selection
of the reference.

I have already achieved so much in a fairly

short time which started with winning the SAA
2011 June Atherton Award for best beginner.
This year I had my little pastel cheetah cub
selected as a runner up in the Animal &
Wildlife section. I also submitted two
paintings, one which was Contemplation to the

Can you say a bit about your working

process?
I always get the eyes in first and then I will
start the background before I start the rest of
the animal. I always go back and change
anything that requires it so I don't worry about
things been altered. That way I can work either
in sections or over the whole piece at a time
without the stress of a finished section that
doesn't quite match up with what I want. I
made a board with Velcro around the raised
edges and a Mahl stick with Velcro so that I
can work wherever I want on a painting and
yet keep it from smudging, yet still have my
wrist supported and both hands free.

Cheetah Cub

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

National Exhibition of Wildlife Artists which
has a panel of five on the jury and not only
were they both accepted, they both sold on the
preview evening. I have had joint exhibitions
and sold well too and also have gallery
representation. I do accept commissions but I
am very selective in what I pick. I must have
an interest in the painting, it has to have
something for me to grab hold of as money
doesn't drive me, and it has to be something I

would want to paint. I have just completed a

second racehorse for an owner so I must be
doing something right, and I do admit that I do
enjoy painting horses.
What are your plans for the future?
What next? Haven't got a clue, my art
seems to have its own agenda and I am happy
to go along with what it wants to do or be, I
think I am happy just going along for the ride.

Ready to Launch

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Sharron shares her method for painting fur

My method of working is methodical in a
disorganised way.

I tend to block either a mid tone or dark

under shadow in and then just push the
pastel into the paper normally with
Pastelmat I use a colour shaper or my
fingers. I drive the pastel in and then start
building detail right from the beginning,
always following the hair direction.

Looking for shadows, highlighted areas,

stray hairs, curly , straight, frizzy, glossy,
undercoat and topcoat. The gaps and
chunks that can form, wet fur, dry fur,
unkempt bits of hair. All of the
underlying structure that builds depth.
Look at it and understand how it is built
layer upon layer with all of the colours
that go to build those layers up.

Each layer will have many strokes and

also colours finished by once again
pushing the pastel into the paper. The
layer beneath doesn't disappear, but it is
slightly softened and muted. When it gets
to the topmost layers I stop pushing the
pastel into the paper and start what I call
a twist and curl with a pencil or soft
pastel.

The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Lay the pencil loosely between the
thumb and first and second fingers,
twisting the pencil and allowing the
weight of the pencil to make the mark.
You can get some wonderful stray and
crinkling fur using this method as it
doesn't disturb the underlayers at all.
You can pull or push the pencil as you
twist and turn the pastel, cutting in to
parts that need defining.

In the pictures of the tiger you can see how each stage was built with random strokes layered and relayered with extra colours added by both glazing and individual strokes.
If you use a printed reference then I suggest actually laying the pastel against it to judge the colours
more accurately. It is surprising just how far away you can be without realising. You do get better at
judging colours and it can be a good tester to see how accurate you are.
Serenity

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The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

How to make new pastels from crumbs, bits, nubbins, and dust
by Charlotte Herczfeld
When what is left of a pastel stick is
too small to hold, what do you do with
it do you throw it away, or do you
save it? What about crumbs and the
crushed remains of that stick that fell
onto the concrete floor?
Save them all, and make new pastels
from them! Here is how you can do it.
You will need some materials:

A sheet of glass
A single edge blade
Plastic bags ( about 1 litre)
Plastic gloves
Plastic or wooden spoons
A hammer
A piece of cardboard
Newspapers
A tray
A mask (dont breathe in the pastel dust)
An eyedropper
A glass of distilled water
A damp rag

I collect all small bits of pastel, and store them separated from each other by hue, but I do put all
brands and all values into the same container, just to make life simple.
When you paint, a lot of fine dust falls off the painting. You can collect that dust with a dust catcher
under the lower edge of the painting and store in containers. This dust will give you neutrals.

Put the bits and ends into a plastic bag. Put the
bag on some newspapers on a sturdy surface.
Use the hammer to crush the pastel bits into
powder. This powder will not be very fine, and
that is OK.

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The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Then you have a choice of adding the

water to the powdered pigment in the
plastic bag (I do that for the fall-off dust,
to avoid getting too much of it airborne),
or pour the pigment out on the sheet of
glass (for the more grainy dust crushed
by hammer), make a hole in the middle
of the heap and add water into the crater.

Take the spoon and knead the

water and pigments into a paste.
Add more water as needed drop
by drop and take care to not
over-saturate the mixture with
water. Use the spoon to crush any
remaining larger particles.

As the paste is smeared out on

the glass, scrape it together with
the single edge blade when
needed.
Also, when you need to clean the
sheet of glass between colours,
do start with scraping off the
paste using the single edge blade,
and then you can wipe off the
remaining pigment with a wet
rag.

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The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Knead the doughy paste with your

fingers, and form into a roll in the
palms of your hands. Cut the roll
in bits.

Take each bit and roll them

between your palms. A pastel
stick can have any shape, so you
could put these to dry.

If you want neater sticks, take that piece of

cardboard and gently roll the clump of
paste with the flat of it, on a newspaper.
That will give you more uniform sticks.

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The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Put the sticks to dry on a newspaper on

top of a tray. The tray provides stability
so you can easily move the drying
sticks.
About three years of collecting crumbs
and dust, and an afternoons work, gave
me 37 new pastels. They are admittedly
slightly more brittle than bought ones,
but they work just fine.

This process is a bit messy. Change

plastic bags and gloves often. Clean the
sheet of glass, the spoons and the single
edge blade between each colour.

From the neutral dust I got a good

number of sticks which I made really
thin, as I plan to use them for drawing
the subject onto the pastel paper.
Neutrals will not show up as bright
edges.
I also experimented with combining an
ultramarine piece of a stick with a
permanent rose, as I wanted to see if I
could make a good vibrant violet. I
found out that the ultramarine
overpowers the permanent rose, but that
it looks promising (leftmost short sticks,
one is mixed with white). I will try
again with different proportions.
In all, Im getting good use out of about
Euro 100 worth of bits and nubbins and dust.
Extra tip: In a similar manner, you can save a dropped and crushed stick. Just take all the crumbs and
dust, crush it even more, and add water and form into a new stick.

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The Pastel Scribbler September 2012

Get Dusty and Apprentice Challenge Announcement

Get Dusty September 2012:
Category: Landscape
Challenge: Interior "scape"
Deadline: 25th September 2012
Get Dusty October 2012:
Category: Portrait
Challenge: A Portrait with a mood. Convey an emotion
Deadline: 25th October 2012
Get Dusty November 2012:
Category: Still Life
Challenge: Set-up with complementary colours
Deadline: 25th November 2012
The Apprentice Challenge has the same themes, only one month later.
Remember, all members can participate in the Get Dusty, while no Journeyer is allowed to take part
in the Apprentice Challenge.
Questions? Log in and ask in the Forum.

Recent discussions in the members Forum on the PGE website:

How to paint animals, How to paint trees, How to emphasise an aspect of a still-life and keep the
supportive aspects in place, How to title landscapes and why, Help with peer critique and much
more!
Log in and join in!
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