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Gaka
10-16-2005, 09:07 PM
Hi there

I have been explaining to Virgo63 about color shaper blending etc, So I thought that I would share this information to other members that may be having difficulties or who were new to using color shapers, tissues and pastels etc.

The majority of my pastels are transfered to the paper by Cotton Buds (Q-tips) or folded tissues....But there are occasions where I need to cover a large area with color and get it to cover, I will make a lot of pastel dust and then heap this dust across the paper in a line and sweep this dust over the area that I need to cover with an oil painting brush....just like sweeping the floor. I will then continue this process going in the reverse direction. I will hold my paper vertical and bang on the rear side of the paper to remove most of the loose dust. I have attached pic of a Japanese Lady as an example of my first layers of colors applied with tissues and cotton buds, I have started to do some detail on her Eye's, Mouth and Nose etc. I can rub my hand accross this painting and it will not smudge the work as the color has been worked into the paper and the dust residue is that minimal. This was an experiment with a different brand of paper which I did not like.

I have attached some Pics to show the blending etc.....Where I mention Pic-No3 etc I am refering to the actual No. in the picture and not 3rd picture uploaded.

I have mentioned above as to how I get the majority of my color onto the pastel paper, I will now explain how I use my Color Shapers. If I need to get or have a sharp edge then I would draw a line of pastel onto the paper (as in the Pic-No1) then I would get my Color Shaper and then I would gently work this color right into the paper tooth similar as to what you would do with your finger (as in Pic-No2) Once I had my fine line I would gently apply pastel up to the edge of that line (Top section Pic-No3) and then work this pastel into the paper (as in Pic-3 middle section) If it needed to be darkened I would add more pastel to it (as in Pic- bottom section)...You could also apply the pastel with a cotton bud to this area if possible or it were large enough to do so. The Pic No4...the top shows the first pastel layer and the blended section below it, followed by the second layer and the blended section below it and the bottom of No4 is the full color over and blended. I guess that you could say that you can only do this to a certain extent because the pastel will gradually build up and the color shaper will tend to start to remove some of the built up pastels.

In the next Pic-No5 I have applied the pastel dust with a cotten budd (Q-tip) and in No6 it was applied with a tissue...they are both similar other than that you can get a slightly thinner line with a tissue providing that you make the edge of the tissue were flat and sharp.

Pic No7 I have applied a pastel blend with a tissue and this is about as dark as you can get the "Tissue-dust" method as the tissue just keeps pushing the dust across the surface instead of into the surface. To get the color darker you have to apply the pastel with the pastel stick and blend this intio the paper with a color shaper a I have done here in Pic No8. Both of these exampls No7/8 were done with the same color, You could get a much better blend by using the lighter shades of the color that you are using.

If you are doing fine line you can either draw a fine line and carefully rub/push this fine line of pastel into the paper or you can also rub your color shaper on the pastel stick and then transfer the pastel to the paper, doing it this way is a lot more time consuming.

I have uploaded a Pic of the tools that I use.....The pinkish thingy is a "Paper-Mate Eracer" or a clutch eraser, I cut the eraser to about a 45 degree angle and this is great for sharpening up the edges of the pastel dust and blends etc. Next is the style of Cotton buds/Make-up applicators that I use...Dove make a cotton bud that is slightly sharper that the ones that I use. The tissue, you can see the sharp edge that I have on my tissue, the sharper you can get this edge the finer the line or detail that you can do. This is one of my Wifes cheaper tissues, I usually use an expensive brand as they are of finer texture and fold much better.

I think that I have coverd everything.....Please feel free to ask me to clarify anything that you do not quite understand....it is difficult to put action clearly into words.

Gaka

PatriciaTantono
10-17-2005, 12:18 AM
Hi Gaka :D ,

You wont believe this, I was sitting in the car yesterday, thinking that I should write to you asking your technique in covering large back ground area of painting, and today I found your answer. :clap: Very complete one. :D

I thought that you were using the tissue paper to cover the back ground area with pastel dust, so you are not using pastel dust for large area. Are you using Angle Chisel Colour Shaper for this or Flat colour shaper ? I am thinking that Flat might work faster.

Another question, why you are not using rough surface of Canson ?

Thanks Gaka, write to you soon.

Best
Patricia

Gaka
10-17-2005, 02:50 AM
Hi Patricia

For the large areas I still use the Tissues to apply the pastel dust, but when I need to a good coverage of the colored pastel paper with the colored pastel dust, I put a small heap of pastel dust directly onto the paper which I have laying flat on a table etc. I then brush/sweep this dust over the area that I need to cover on the pastel paper with an oil painting brush. You get a very good coverage of colored pastel dust doing it this way.

I only use the angle chisel color shaper and when it wears down I can trim it into shape again with a blade and therefore get more life from it.

The rough surface of Canson has a hollow circular attern on it whereas the smooth side in much flatter and it is much easier to get fine detail on the smoother side

Gaka.

PatriciaTantono
10-17-2005, 03:35 AM
Ok. I got it. I was refering to your Pic No.8, I thought you used this for darker back ground area. I had experience using oil painting brush for charcoal painting, sometime applying charcoal dust with it but most time applying the charcoal stick directly on the paper and brush with oil painting brush. I used cheap oil painting brush made in China for charcoal. Are you using softer brush ?

Thanks.
Patricia

Virgo63
10-17-2005, 04:39 AM
Thanks for the explanation Gaka! I think I will get some scrap paper and play around with some of the techniques to get a feel for it.

I have a question. When you apply the pastel with the tissue, do you rub it firmly into the grain of the paper, or do you just lighty apply a coating to the paper, then darken it further with the pastel directly?

lucky
10-17-2005, 05:08 AM
This is fantastic Gaka, thank you! I've been eyeing those color shapers for a while now but I wasn't sure if they were really worth the expense. I like how smooth the application looks, may have to give it a shot!

Gaka
10-17-2005, 07:08 AM
Hello

Patricia....Although pic No8 looks big it is actually about the length of a pencil in real life. I only use the dust and brush method when I am covering a large area....say more than 4in square or 100mm square because it is a little messy to do on realy small areas alhough it could be done. I use the cheap Chinese oil painting brushes as the soft brushes just remove the pastel dust from the paper.

Virgo63.....It is a great idea to get some paper and try different applications, also try different colored papers as well. Because it is very difficult to get black/dark the pastel dust to cover over a light pastel paper and visa versa.....There is a way of getting around this.....but that is another subject.

As for the tissues.....I usually apply the pastel color with a tissue very lightly as I dont want to go overboard or too dark with the initial color application, then as I get more color onto the paper I tend to work the tissue and pastel color a lot more harder on the paper. The tissue will actually start to wear away and ball up on the paper, I just reverse the fold (Insideout) and apply more color with it.

I rarely apply the pastel stick directly to the paper when laying down bases or blocking in colors unless it is in an instance like in Pic No7/8 where I can not get my color dark enought with the tissue method and then I will apply the pastel stick directly to the paper and blend it into the paper with a color shaper.

Lucky..... I would only purchase one medium sized color shaper and see how you like it....I only use one size (N0.6 I think) although I do have other sizes. Like I said to Virgo63 and I would suggest to any one who has not used pastels before or are just beginning....get some paper and try all different methods and kinds of applicators. I only use Tissues, color shapers and cotton buds, but some pastelists use chamious, felt, carpet, sponge, styrene packageing (Peanuts), Feathers etc. Have a play around and post the practice that you do here or E-Mail it to me if you have a problem or want me to check it out.

Re: "The expense" If you do not have any pastels yet...but you are thinking of try or buying some, I would suggest that you pick a subject ie: Flower, Apple, Frog or something colorfull and or simple'ish and then just purchase the colors that you need for that subject. Have a go at painting your chosen subject using the pastels and see if you like using them, you can always add pastel colors to your existing pastels as you need them. I literaally have hundreds of pastel colors and I only use about 10/20% of the ones I own because I bought mine in sets of 200's or something like that.

For anyone/everyone.....A couple of things whilst I think of them.....A lot of you may be aware of this and others not, be carefull that you do not rub your pastels too hard onto the pastel paper surface and damage the tooth in the pastel paper, This can be repaired with fixitive....but in my opinion it is much better to avoid the problem in the first place. To get to know the limits of the the pastel paper you are using.....rub the surface gradually and increase the the pressure to see how much work the paper will take before the surface of the pastel paper looses its tooth.

This is a personal choice and I know some artists swear by it....But I do not use fixitive on any of my pastel work as it takes away the brilliance of the colors. Traditional pastelists lay a lot of pastel onto the surface of their paintings and some artists find it necessary or choose to apply fixitive before the final colors are applied.

The color choice of the pastel paper is critical when using the dust method that I use as it is possible to get an influence of the pastel paper color through the pastel dust.....another suject/another day.

Gaka

Amazingreys
10-17-2005, 12:53 PM
This is fabulous Gaka, thank you for sharing it.
After reading your WIP's I was wondering more about your actual appliation process, and now you have provided it!
Thank you, I will print this off and study it carefully, experiment and play! :)

PatriciaTantono
10-17-2005, 08:22 PM
Thanks Gaka. I am very jealous of your 200 pcs pastel. :D
I am using Rembrant, Winsor and some cheap hard pastel. Cheap pastel (I think the brant is Mung Yo) doesnt lay firmly on the paper.

We might need to have many brushes for every colors, right ? Do you wash your brushes everytime after painting?

Gaka
10-18-2005, 05:00 AM
Hi there

I should have posted this much earlier in this thread, but I only just remembered that I have a 150meg scan of the Kangaroo......so I have uploaded a close up of the Pastel Kangaroo that I painted, in it you can see the dark shadowed area where I would have drawn the outline of the dark colors and then worked this color into the pastel paper. I would have then applied the centre section of the shadows and worked this area into the paper as well. Every dark section was drawn and worked with the color shaper as well as all/most of the other colored areas....All of the water ripples were done useing the same technique.

This picture is 150mm or 6in across or one third of the total width of the painting and there is no way I could have done any of this detail work without using a Tortillon or color shaper, I think that this pic is a good example of the detail that can be achieved with either of these tools. This Pic below is just a little over the actual size of the painting.

Patricia....I dont use the bristle brushes a lot, but I wash them if I am changing colors.

Gaka

PatriciaTantono
10-18-2005, 08:20 PM
My colleague was standing behind me while seeing your Kangaroo, she couldn't believe it is a painting. I am still disappointed that I missed seeing the original work, should have visited Singapore ealier. You must be a very patience person. :)

Paula
10-23-2005, 11:27 PM
Hi,
This is such beautiful work.
I am new to Scribble talk and especially this medium. I have purchased a few oil pastels (oil pastels are not for me) and some pastel pencils just to try out the medium. I love it, but dislike the mess. I have been reading quite a few threads on another site about pastels and techiniques and how certain pastels crumble easily. I then thought why hadn't anyone mentioned grinding up the pastels and using a brush or Q-tip to apply the pigment. I must have missed those threads, but sure am very ahppy I found this one. This is a great technique.

A few questions:
What brand pastels are best for grinding? How do you grind the pastels?
What paper works best with this technique? What size brish is pictured above?

Cheers
Paula

Angela
10-24-2005, 09:10 AM
Gaka,

Thank you, thank you for providing us with this invaluable information. Your pastel work is truly inspirational and amazing! I am printing this information out to keep for future reference.

Have you ever considered writing a book?

Gaka
10-26-2005, 06:29 AM
Hi Patricia....Sorry that you missed seeing the Kangaroo, But at least you got to see my Tiger. "Patience" I have an untold amount of patience when it comes to my creative/artistic area, but unfortunately I dont not have same degree of patience when it comes to "Marriage" because if I had not divorced twice I would have been very wealthy now :D

Paula....Thank you for your comments....I guess you could say that one medium is as messy as the next, I find that using pastels and the pastel dust in my method is not very messy at all because my hands rarely hold a pastel stick other than to make the dust and to add the finer detail to the art work. I work with my artwork pretty much vertical and and residue of pastel (which is very little) falls to the floor.

It does not matter realy as to which brand of pastels you use to make the dust, but I use Faber Castells polychromos pretty much exclusively although I do use Rembrants now and then. I use the Faber polychromos are because hard and I can sharpen them whilst collecting the dust and then use them for detail....whereas a softer pastels you can not do this. Rembrants you can sharpen to a reasonable degree. I use Canson pastel paper, the smooth side. I would suggest that you experiment with different papers and see which one you like best as it is realy a personal choice. The black handled object in the picture is a color shaper which I use for blending of the pastels.....You can search "Colour Shaper" on google and find their web site for more information.

Angela.....Thank you for your comments....Yes I did go down the book path, it would have been a long process, firstly by submitting a proposal and if it was accepted, I then had to complete the works within the time framework of the publisher. The total of the time expected from submission until print was around two years....or that is what was suggested to me. I had planned on incorporating a DVD into the book as well, but I have not made any move towards the book idea and it not a priority. footnote....If I produced a Book no one would buy it as I have freely given away all of the "Secrets" of my photorealism art already :)

Gaka

Paula
10-28-2005, 05:16 AM
Gaka,
Thank you for the information. I just went to a colour shaper site and saw that there are a few options such as type, size and firmness.
Which ones do you use? How many layers do you usualy aply?

Katydid
10-30-2005, 05:38 PM
i missed this until now - WOW beautiful work. and great information.

Gaka
10-31-2005, 03:30 AM
Hi Paula

I use about a size six angle chisel and the Grey colored shapers, you can sharpen the chisel with a blade when it gets a little rounded on the end.

I work the pastel dust into the grain of the paper, so it is limited the amount of dust layers you can work with a color shaper, If you apply the pastel much thicker you can also work that, but you must be carefull not to push the pastel off the paper.....experimenting with the medium and your tools is a good way to see exactly what can and cant be done etc.

Gaka

ex-limey
11-13-2005, 06:17 PM
Thank you Gaka for all the information that you are so willing to share! :clap: :clap: Pastel is not an easy medium to master. You have given us all a lot of help! Any other infromation about how to use pastels will be gratefully accepted.
Jean. :bye1: :bye1: