Untitled - Work in Progress
Some days are an hour, some days are 10 minutes, some days are 10 hours, oops, did I just say 10 hours, well they were at one time. Nowadays the head wants to but the body won't cooperate. I think it's called "slowin down' but you know what........I'm glad to just be doing it. It's always a better day when I create. Anyway, today I thought I would let you into my studio to see a sample of a typical set up when I'm working on a painting.. Did you think it would be one of those artists that has his pastels arranged all grouped neatly by value or color in a large custom pastel organizer? No, I'm not one of those people who can easily undo established habits. Probably because it's easier to keep it the way it's been and also because I've memorized each brand's texture and colors and know somewhat what it will do when applied no matter how they're arranged. What I do is keep my pastels in their original boxes on rolling carts and on a work table. As I acquire a new set, I simply added it to my set up. So now that a have quite a few ( I pretty much use them all), I have a large assortment from which I select to put on the carts or table in my current set up. Here is my table ensamble that I'm using as my current set up for this particular painting.
Current assorment in use for" work in progress".
Another View
I've found some neat tricks over the years like coffee filters for current pallet uses and meat loaf containers with rice or corn starch to cushion the pastels( the pastels don't really stay clean unless I wipe them off individually hence the roll of toilet paper).
If anyone out there has any neat tricks with pastels that they want to pass on then send them on over. I would love to hear from you.
Beautiful painting.
ReplyDeleteMy approach to pastel arranging is similar to yours. Boxes and whatnot semi-stacked on top of one another. Oddly, it works for me. I have sort of memorized what is where.
I keep a very soft cloth (piece of old T-shirt) near me and just before I put the pastel back in its box, I wipe it off. It's gotten to be a very fast habit by now; I'm usually not even aware I'm doing it. Then after each session, I wash out the cloth and hang it to dry again for the next session.
Very good. I have been using toilet paper roll on my table to wipe each pastel clean before I use it on the painting and then again at the end of each painting when I clean all pastels used before putting them back in their boxes. Good to hear from you Jala Thank you.
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