TO FREE MYSELF

copyright 2012 Stephanie Takes-Desbiens

copyright 2012 Stephanie Takes-Desbiens

I am working on this piece in pastels.  I haven't working in pastel, or anything, for a while.  Pastels force me to make bolder decisions than oils because with oils I can try to mix color to a muddy end, and I can scrape and scrape of the paint. Pastel paper will only accept a certain amount of pigment depending on how much tooth it has.

I am talking about soft versus oil pastels.  But soft pastels come in various forms and degrees of hardness. My hardest pastels are pastel pencils.  I use them to sketch in the basic shapes.  My "Rembrandt" brand pastels are medium in hardness.  And then I have a a large box of Sennelier pastels and a motley assortment of other really fine and soft pastels.

For some reason dark pastels are difficult to make. I have a few that I very jealously guard.

Working in pastel, for me, is an interesting combination of drawing and painting.  In a class once I heard somewhat relate a philosophy I think they attributed to Wolf Kahn. This was that color was less important than value. 

As you see above, value is easy to think of in grey scale.  But if you look at the red underneath the grey you can see that red (or any color) can also go from dark to light.   I interpret the statement as saying  that as long as you stay within the correct value range you can play with the color.

copyright 2012 Stephanie Takes-Desbiens

It's easier to say it than it is to do it. Freedom in color is something I fight with constantly.  And, that battle is what painting is about for me as a process.  It is the attempt to free myself from preconceptions. To Free Myself.  

This last picture is the piece at the end of my first session. 

ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2012 STEPHANIE TAKES-DESBIENS
All rights reserved

My Painting Project: Setting It Up

I am now ready to start my painting. Thanks for helping me pick a photo for subject. I have decided to use pastels because the lack of mixing makes me work more loosely and the paintings often come out better.

It has occurred to me that a lot of you may not get the way a painting is made. Like most things it's a series of choices. The choices reveal a lot about the painter's personality, and sometimes convey agenda, conscious or unconsciously.

We've chosen the subject and I have chosen the pastel medium. Pastels are a low binder/low vehicle medium. They are very powdery - think loose eyeshadow. I like to work on paper with a tooth. The paper I use resembles sandpaper but is a paper that's been coated with a textured product. It leaves a sandpaper like finish.

My first problem comes with the paper size. Mt support board is smaller than the paper.  I could just tape it down but instead I found a piece of cardboard that with the support behind it will be strong enough. Then I realized the paper and the photo did not share aspect ratio.  Below you can see where I have set up the paper on the cardboard and attached that to the rigid support.  I marked the entirety off with tape to delineate the area matching the approximate aspect ratio. The two areas on either side I can use to check the pastel color and value (lightness/darkness of a particular color; sort of a greyscale for color).

The Best Laid Plans

English: Pigments for sale on market stall, Goa, India. e. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ah, the best laid plans.

As I went to work out, my Thursday planned ahead, my mom called to say she had a ride up here on Saturday, instead of taking the train on Monday.  That's great but it crunches my schedule. Plus, I had my shopping to do, and some housework. I have two reviews on deck too. My plan for this project was, I had planned to choose a picture to paint and decide on a medium.

My media are pastels or oil paint. Oil paint is like the tantric sex of the art supply store.  It's smooth, and oily and takes forever.  Pastels are more like a one night stand. Both are hugely toxic.  Pastels because they create a fine dust you breathe in and it has lovely things like cadmium on it.

Oil paints are toxic because of the pigments, binder (gives the "stick" to paint) and the vehicle, what makes it flow. And of course there are solvents and additions that make it shiny, or stiff, or make it dry faster.  All the stuff in paint and  those add-ins usually enter the air a mild toxin.   They are also not something good to get on the skin or to ingest.

Because of the quality of paint, the time it takes to prepare the foundation an oil painting can take me days, weeks and months to finish. I love the feel of paint and oddly, the solvents seem to help my sinus. I doubt it's really help and it will probably all kill me someday.

 A pastel could take a week. but there is no drying time.  And there's little in the way of mixing. The foundation is usually paper; it's usually compressed to make it stiffer and is textured in someway.  I like something that has had a finish applied like a sandpaper.

So, I am leaning towards this picture. It already has good composition which is amazing since I took it with my telephone in driving rain in Aix-en-Provence.

Because I tend to work more loosely in pastel I think I will start there. I need that one-night painting stand.