I would like to get better at drawing with pastels… I did a brief internet search for tutorials on this technique and read some tips here and there. I saw too many photorealistic pastel drawings of pets and portraits, this is a style I don’t like. I’d like to do it differently…
To get some practice, I began with another mark-making exercise, this time with a reduced palette of colours: white, light grey, dark brown and black. I used grey, rough sketchbook paper. I experimented with tonal shadings and used cotton swabs to blend tones into each other, trying out different variations in 8cm sized squares. In the final one, I made a thumbnail tonal study of a white mug with a light source from the side. I wanted to focus on the pattern of light and shade, also reflected light. The thumbnail only permitted a rough sketch and I decided to do a larger study on the mug.
I drew the white mug with those 4 colours on the grey paper. I the initial version of the drawing, I had worked out the contrasts to the extreme. Although I saw the drawing as “finished”, I was so dissatisfied with the result, that on the next day, I decided to rework it. I toned down the contrasts by lighting up the dark areas. Reworking the drawing seemed to be a good way to learn how the pastel material can be treated.
Despite having done a fixation on the first layer, I could take off pigment with soft tissue. Then I applied layers of lighter tones on the dark areas to lighten them up and smudged them softly to create a more even surface. I found this corresponded better to the smooth and shiny surfaces of the mug and the table. I also added some red strokes in the background and the mug’s cast shadow, because the all-grey tones impression was a bit dead. I think the drawing improved. The composition isn’t interesting, but after all, it’s just a study and I include it here to see where I get over time when I continue working with pastels.