Pastel Painting: Yellow Flower Field

 Don't throw away old paintings!

"Yellow Flower Field" 17 x 17 cm Original Pastel Painting.

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Are you throwing away your old paintings? Well I don't. They are a reminder of how well I am progressing in my art journey. I take out my old unsuccessful paintings from time to time and compare them to my newer paintings. I try to see the mistakes I made. I try to imagine how it would have been better. I try to see my mark making. This is a great opportunity to criticise yourself!

I also use expensive sand paper. I don't want to waste it by throwing away every bad painting. I have used Uart and Fisher sand papers so far. They both can be washed. Yes I am actually talking about taking the painting to the sink and literally washing it with running water. This is what I did to the below painting. You can even scrub it with a bristle brush to recover the paper completely. But I didn't do that with this particular one. Because I like this composition and I intend to do something very similar. So I washed it gently. When its dried, my underpainting is ready!

An old unsuccessful painting washed with water.

Pastel Painting: Abstract Autumn Landscape

 Wet Underpainting

"Abstract Autumn Landscape" 17 x 17 cm original pastel painting.

Available on Etsy

I actually painted this one back in December 2016. I took the photos and everything but I had no time to write about it until now. This blog post is all about wet underpaintings. 

Underpainting is a great method to get rid of the white of the paper. I don't want the white speckles in dark areas especially. It gives a chalky appearance to the painting. So I usually do an underpainting to all of my paintings.

Initial sketch and block in with pastels.

I sketched my scene roughly on the paper and blocked it in with hard pastels. I usually use hard pastels for block in. Soft pastels leave too much pigment for a wet underpainting. If you must use soft pastels you should use a very light touch. Otherwise you will get powdery doughy mess and the amount of water you use will never be enough. So hard pastels work better for this purpose.

Block in wetted with water.