Tutorial - The Billycock
Stage 1.
The board was painted in 2 coats of storm blue pastel primer. To keep the lovely warm late summer sunlight in the painting and to keep the luminosity under the pale grasses on the hill I dissolved ochre yellows and oranges with white spirit to form the underpainting and block in the light areas of the composition against the rich blue of the board.
Stage 2.
Onto the underpainting, I began to block in the pattern of the dark shapes in the subject, the trees and cast shadows; the form shadows on the Hills, the shadowed background forested Hills. This immediately provides the skeleton for the composition.
Stage 3.
Lay in some green with a very light touch over the underpainting. This allows the warmth of the underpainting to glow through the green and imply the warmth of the soil. With effective pastel painting, it is really important to ‘Just touch’ the paper surface and vary the pressure where more colour or value is needed. Under commit. .. till you are really sure of your decisions …a lesson in life!
Stage 4.
Keep your application loose and abstracted in the early stages. Yes is plenty of opportunity to clean up shadows and add more interest later. .. plus you can work quickly knowing everything can be moved as needed.
Stage 5.
This gives you a closer view of the light pastel application in the early stages.
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