Most of my preliminary work is done in dry and soft pastels. The medium is quick and easy to use. You can create a beautiful composition with the right strokes and smudging techniques. It only takes a bit of pastel to fill an entire section.
This dry pastel landscape was created on-site amidst an autumn snow fall in the Muskokas, Ontario. With my outdoor easel outside and hands freezing, my medium had to be quick but colourful enough to capture the beauty of the scene in front of me.
I also use dry pastels to work out the composition and colours before beginning my oil paintings. This is a scene from Pebble Beach (one of the dream golf courses to visit) which turned into an oil painting requested by a client.
hah what is your “smudging technique” ?
Take a dry pastel and press it length-wise across the required section in a streak/line. Then take a square cotton cloth around your index finger and smudge the colour across your section. With just a little, you can easily fill a large section by spreading/smudging the colour!
sounds fun!
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