Happily, we have another creative prompt from one of our Advisory Board members. Today we have Felicity House to share her ideas on how to use monochrome to help your art-making.
Here’s Felicity!
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I often use this simple monochrome exercise at the start of a pastel class.
The idea is to shed colour for a few moments and work in monochrome – either black to white or grades of one single colour.
It reminds you that tone (value) is as important as colour in creating an interesting image.
It reminds you to use interesting and lively marks in your pastels:
- Drawn marks
- Rubbed marks
- Erased marks
- Thin and thick pastel marks
- Fine graphic marks
- Soft marks
- Bold strong marks
Using a viewfinder to select a small composition which has a range of tones from dark to light is important. It helps you think about your composition and the edges of your image.
MAKING A SMALL CHARCOAL TONAL STUDY
On cartridge paper, tape off a square or rectangle with masking tape then:
- prepare the panel with a gently rubbed dry ‘wash’ of charcoal to create a mid-tone
- look through the viewfinder of the corresponding format – square/rectangle
- find an interesting composition with a range of tones
- translate the composition with a charcoal stick drawing
- add tones by hatching and rubbing, strengthening for darks
- subtract highlights by erasing with putty rubber or plastic eraser wedge
- check tonal range – add darker marks if necessary
- look for and include textures by using graphic marks
- remove tape carefully
Or, work in a similar way using one pastel colour to create a monochrome piece.
MAKING A SMALL TONAL STUDY USING PASTEL
On paper, tape off a square or rectangle with masking tape then:
- prepare the panel with a light layer of white pastel
- and a layer of your chosen pastel colour (monochrome eg. blue)
- look through the viewfinder of the corresponding format – square /rectangle
- draw composition with pastel pencil
- add tones by hatching and rubbing in with pastel – strengthening for darks
- subtract highlights by erasing with putty rubber or plastic eraser wedge
- check tonal range – add darker marks if necessary
- remove tape carefully
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Ohhhhh, thank you, Felicity! I love this creative prompt of working in monochrome! I can’t wait to go play with some mark-making!
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More December PleinAir Salon Winners!
I wrote about winner Tim Reilly and his Artist-over-65 Award. Also in December, Jacob Aguiar won the Best PleinAir Pastel Award. I want to point out that this same painting took an Honourable Mention in November. I’m telling you this so that you know you can always enter the same painting in another month! If you believe your painting is strong, then go ahead and re-enter as Jacob Aguiar did. You just never know….
We also have two pastel Honourable Mentions from December’s competition. Xenia Sease won her award in the Plein Air Pastel category while Alison Suttle took an award in the Beginner category.
You can see all the December winners here.
We’re at the beginning of a new month so make sure you enter and if you do so before mid-month, you’ll get the Early Bird registration rate!!
And that’s it for me as Editor of Pastel Today!! Make sure to come connect with me over at HowToPastel!
Keep painting cos that’s how you move forward!
Gail
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